Offer to purchase
The registration of transfer is triggered by the acceptance
of an offer to purchase by the seller. The Offer to Purchase
should contain all the essential details regarding the
Purchaser, the Seller, the property description and the
payment of the purchase price. The said document should
contain particulars of the existing bondholder over the
property.
Bond application
Almost immediately after the acceptance of the Offer to
Purchase an application for the finance of the purchase
price must be made by the Purchaser or his representative to
a financial institution.
Instruction to the transferring attorney
In order to activate the registration of the transfer
process a copy of the signed Offer to Purchase should be
handed over to the transferring attorney upon acceptance
thereof by the Seller.
Cancellation figures
After opening the file by the Transfer Attorney, last
mentioned immediately requests cancellation figures from the
Seller's existing bondholder. Upon the receipt of the said
request the existing bondholder will supply the outstanding
amount required for the cancellation of the bond and
simultaneously instruct the attorneys to attend to the
cancellation thereof. At the same time the existing
bondholder will also forward the Title Deed which was kept
by them as additional security to the cancellation attorney.
Clearance certificate
Simultaneously the transfer attorney will apply for a Rates
Clearance Certificate from the local authorities/Body
Corporate. Once last mentioned has calculated the
outstanding balances, the transferring attorney will be
advised accordingly and must then make payment thereof in
order to obtain the necessary Rates Clearance Certificate.
No transfer may be lodged with the Deed Office unless
accompanied by the said Rates Clearance Certificate. Upon
approval by the financial institution of the purchasers'
finance an instruction will be forwarded to the attorney of
their choice (usually the transferring attorneys) to attend
to the registration of the necessary bond.
Transfer duty receipt
The transferring attorney submits an application for a
Transfer Duty receipt from the Receiver of Revenue. No
transfer may be lodged with the Deeds Office unless
accompanied by the said Transfer Duty receipt. The attorneys
attending to the registration of the bond immediately
requests from the transferring attorney the draft Deed of
Transfer. This is necessary to obtain details regarding the
title conditions, purchase price, dates of sales etc. (This
is only done if the financial institution instructs an
attorney other than the transferring attorney.) After
instruction to register the bond has been given by the
financial institution the transferring attorney may now
proceed to draw all documents regarding the transfer and
arrange for the signature thereof by both the Seller and the
Purchaser.
Similarly the bond attorney upon receipt of the Draft Deed
proceeds to draw all documents pertaining to the
registration of the bond and has the same signed by the
Purchaser. The bond attorney then issues the necessary
guarantees in favor of the Seller and / or the existing
bondholder of the Seller to procure the cancellation of the
existing bond.
By this time the transferring attorney would already have
received both the Clearance certificate as well as the
Transfer duty receipt and will now be in a position to lodge
the documents for registration in the Deeds Office.
Lodgement
The transferring attorney then contacts the bond attorney as
well as the cancellation attorney in order to effect the
simultaneous lodgment of the various deeds in the Deeds
Office. The transferring attorney attends to the
registration of transfer of the property from the name of
the Seller to the Purchaser whilst the cancellation attorney
attends to the cancellation of the existing bond of the
Seller and the bond attorney on the other hand sees to the
registration of the new bond to be registered over the
property as security for the Purchasers' loan. The set of
three registrations is then submitted simultaneously in the
Deeds Office and after being examined by the examiners in
the Deeds Office, placed on preparation where the attorneys;
both transfer and bond cancellation attorneys; attend to any
notes made by the examiners in respect of the documents.
This takes 10-14 working days.
After the documents where cleared by the examiners on prep,
i.e. all the notes where attended to by the various
attorneys, last mentioned are forwarded for registration the
following day.
Upon registration the attorneys involved attend to the
following:
Present the guarantees for payment of the purchase price,
which is then allocated towards the payment of the existing
bond in the balance in favor of the Sellers, being the
proceeds of the sale.
Adjustment and apportionment of rates payments are made and
the various parties debited or credited as the case may be.
The local authority is advised of the registration.
Agent's commission is paid to the estate agent.
The transfer attorney then forwards the Title Deed to the
Bond attorney/Bond holder who retains the same together with
the registered bond document as secured.
