"An Attorney near me" - Cape Town legal concierge
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Are you thinking of Selling or Buying Property? Contact Conveyancer Clare Faria clare@cloetebaker.co.za for assistance and to guide you through the transfer process.
The Property Transfer Process
A brief overview of the Conveyancing process for a property transfer is as follows:
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The preparation or reviewing of an Offer to Purchase : The Offer to Purchase is the Agreement between the Buyer and Seller which sets out the terms and conditions of the sale.
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Once the terms and conditions are agreed on and a conveyancing lawyer is nominated as the transferring Attorney in the Offer to Purchase the Conveyancing Department of the nominated lawyer will proceed with the Title Deed and Property Searches via the Deeds Office.
- The Offer to Purchase often contains suspensive conditions eg. The sale might be subject to the purchaser obtaining Bond approval or be subject to the sale of the purchaser’s property. Once the suspensive conditions are met the contract of sale comes into effect. At this stage the Conveyancing Department will proceed to:
- Obtain the necessary FICA documents from the Buyer and Seller.
- Request cancellation instructions of any existing Bonds registered over the property.
- Make application to the Municipality and Managing Agents, if applicable, for the rates and levy figures in order to obtain rates clearance certificates and levy clearance Certificates.
- Draft the transfer documents and arrange signature thereof by the Buyer and Seller.
- The costs of the transfer are generally paid by the Purchaser, this would be a condition set out in the Offer to Purchase. Once the costs are paid the Transfer Duty is paid over to SARS in order to obtain a Transfer Duty Receipt.
- Compliance Certificates (An in depth article on Compliance Certificates was published in Cloete Baker & Partners' December 2023 Newsletter. If you would like a copy; and to subscribe to our monthly newsletter please e-mail clare@cloetebaker.co.za with the heading “Please subscribe me to your newsletter”) required to be provided by the Seller are :
- Electrical
- Electric fence system
- Gas
- Beetle (normally a Bank requirement)
- Water Installation (required by the City of Cape Town.)
- Once the Finances/Guarantees for the Purchase price; and all the Certificates are in place we will proceed to arrange lodgement, simultaneously with the Bond Cancellation and Bond at the Deeds Office.
- The Deeds are then examined at the Deeds Office by the Deeds Office examiners. The examination process (at the Cape Town Deeds Office) currently takes 5 to 10 days. After examination the Deeds are made available to us (“up on prep”) for a period 5 working days to hand in for registration. Once the Deeds are registered by the Conveyancer at the Deeds Office, ownership in the property passes to the buyer and the buyer becomes the legal owner of the property. (The existing bond cancellation and new bond would be registered at the same time.)
- After registration we account to the Seller and Buyer by producing a statement of account. Agents Commission and other costs are settled and the proceeds of the sale dealt with. The new Title Deed is made available to us from the Deeds Office within 2 weeks of the registration and is forwarded to the buyer or bank (if bonded.)
Property Buy/Sell/Transfer/Usufruct
Conveyancing Books
Read these books to enhance your knowledge of conveyancing in SA:
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The Practitioner's Guide to Conveyancing and Notarial Practice
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Consolidated Chief Registrar of Deeds' Circulars and Conference Resolutions
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The Law and Practising of Conveyancing in South Africa
