Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa September 2015 | Page 38

LEGAL

Preventing Delays

Ensuring buyers and sellers work
in union with Conveyancers
BY ULRIK STRANDVIK

A

ll too often conveyancers, the Deeds Office
or the City Council are blamed for the delays
in transferring properties. In many cases this
criticism is well founded, however, delays can often be
prevented if sellers and conveyancers take certain steps
before the property is sold.
• Ensure that all rates are paid up. The City Council
will not issue a rates clearance certificate until all
outstanding rates and services have been paid,
together with the payment of advance rates and
services. A property cannot be transferred without
a valid rates clearance certificate.

• If there is no bond, ensure that you have the
property’s original title deeds (If there is a bond
the original will be lodged with the bank). Title
deeds have an unfortunate tendency to be filed
somewhere and then simply disappear. If they are
lost the conveyancer will need to apply for a copy
at the Deeds Office, which costs money and takes
time.

• If your home is bonded, ensure that all the
payments on the bond are met and paid up and
give the bank sufficient notice that you intend
to sell and cancel the bond. If this is not done
the bank is entitled to charge a penalty for early
termination of the bond.
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SEPTEMBER 2015 SA Real Estate Investor


• If the unit is part of a sectional title complex,
make sure that you have a copy of the latest
financial statements and the management and
conduct rules of the body corporate before you
sell your unit. Often a purchaser would want
sight of these before they put in an offer, but
more importantly, the bank that the purchaser has
applied to for a bond would require these before
they grant the loan

• If you are selling property in a sectional title unit,
gated community or any similar development
where levies are payable and/or certain living
and design guidelines apply, it is essential to sort
out with the home owners association or body
corporate or whatever other body any issues that
may exist before signing a sale document. More
often than not there is a ѥѱ