SA Affordable Housing May - June 2019 // Issue: 76 | Page 35

LEGAL MATTERS
• If the developer opts for the registration of one
Certificate of Registered Title for a batch of 100 stands
the conveyancing fees could be R130 570 (R3 850 plus
R1 280 x 99) plus R305 Deeds Office charges.
Even though the developers negotiate reduced
conveyancing fees with their conveyancers, which attend to
the subsequent transfer of the serviced erf this registration
of Certificates of Registered Title, it may cause additional
conveyancing costs which are not legally required in terms
of existing legislation.
TIME DELAYS LINKED TO REGISTRATION OF A
CERTIFICATE OF REGISTERED TITLE
The developers also have to deal with the time delays
linked to the issuing of these Certificates of Registered Title
by the Registrar of Deeds, which add at least another six to
eight weeks onto the process to transfer the serviced erf to
the purchaser.
The Certificate of Registered Title for any such erf can
usually be registered within eight to 10 working days from
date of lodgement at the Deeds Office, but after registration
the Deeds Office must first capture all the relevant
information and scan the documents into its records before
the registered Certificate of Registered Title can be
delivered to the conveyancers.
This delivery period may take from six to eight weeks
after date of registration. A copy of the registered
Certificate of Registered Title can only then be submitted
to Building Control so that the building plans for the house
to be constructed on that particular stand can processed
for approval.
DEMAND BY THE MUNICIPALITY FOR THE SUBMISSION
OF A SECTION 82 OR 113 SERVICES CERTIFICATE WITH
THE REGISTRATION OF A CERTIFICATE OF REGISTERED
TITLE IN CONTRAVENTION OF THE TOWN-PLANNING AND
TOWNSHIPS ORDINANCE, 1986 (ORDINANCE 15 OF 1986)
applicant (separate from the township title) is not the
transfer of ownership as described in sections 82(1)(b) and
113(1)(c).
The registration of a Certificate of Registered Title in this
instance is merely the creation of a different title deed for
the same erf, still held by the same registered owner, now in
the form of a Certificate of Registered Title instead of the
township title.
One of the duties of the Registrar of Deeds is described in
section 3(1)(b) of the Deeds Registries Act, 1937 (No 47 of
1937) as follows:
‘The Registrar shall, subject to the provisions of this Act,
examine all deeds or other documents submitted to him for
execution or registration, and after examination reject any
such deed or other document the execution or registration
of which is not permitted by this Act or by any other law, or
to the execution or registration of which any other valid
objection exist’.
The Registrar of Deeds should have challenged the
municipality’s contravention of the ordinance and its
encroachment on the registration duties and functions of
the Deeds Office instead of agreeing to it without
questioning the validity of those requests.
THE INTERPRETATION OF THE TERM ‘REGISTERED ERF’
The interpretation by the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan
Municipality of a registered erf in Business Rule 001/10-
03/17 must be evaluated in terms of the accepted legal
principles applicable when townships are established.
The definition of ‘owner’ in section 102 of the Deeds
Registries Act, 1937, (No47 of 1937) states that it means in
relation to immovable property, the person registered as the
owner or holder.
If one conducts a Deeds Office search on any erf still held
by virtue of a township title the Deeds Office printout will
show that the township applicant is the registered owner of
that erf in terms of the township title, despite the fact that
these individual erven held under the township title are not
separately described in different paragraphs.
The Deeds Office printout for Erf 1030 Lufhereng
Township (Figure 1), for example shows in the Owner Name
column the ‘City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality’
and in the Title Deed column T38034/2014. The code T/T
appears in the purchase price column on this printout, which
is the Deeds Offices’ way of indicating that the erf is still
held by virtue of the township title.
What adds to the developers‘ woes is that the municipality
sometimes forces the developer to submit the services
certificate issued in respect of the erf to the Registrar of
Deeds before the Certificate of Registered Title may be
registered in the Deeds Office, by imposing duties on the
Registrar of Deeds, which are in contravention of the
Town-Planning and Townships Ordinance, 1986 (Ordinance
15 of 1986).
This requirement
for the submission of
a services certificate
does not muster
constitutionalism
regarding erven in a
township established
in terms of the Town-
Planning and
Townships Ordinance,
1986 (Ordinance 15
of 1986), because the
registration of a
Certificate of
Registered Title to
create a title deed for
a specific erf in the
name of the township
Figure 1: The Deeds Office printout of Eft 1030 Lufhereng Township.
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MAY - JUNE 2019
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