Selling your property: What happens when, Part 2

A property is not ‘sold’ until the Agreement of Sale has been properly signed and initialled by all parties, all suspensive conditions have been fulfilled or waived, and transfer has been registered in the buyer’s name. The transfer process includes all the paperwork that has to be done to transfer ownership of a property.

THE TRANSFER PROCESS, STEP-BY-STEP:

The transferring attorney will…

• write to Seller and Purchaser to request copies of marriage certificates, ANC, ID documents, proof of address and income tax reference numbers. We can help by collecting all the required document copies and supplying them to the attorneys when we instruct them to proceed with transfer.
• take steps to ensure that the buyer’s bond application is completed by a mortgage bond consultant and forwarded to the selected financial institution.
• assist with arranging a property valuation with the bank’s assessors while continuing to monitor the bond application.
• send copies of the Agreement of Sale to all relevant parties.
• ask the existing bondholder (your bank) for the Title Deed.
• draw up transfer documents as soon as all documentation is received.
• notify seller and buyer to come in to sign the relevant documents and notify buyer to pay the necessary costs.
• write to the Municipality for outstanding rates and taxes (or obtain a Homeowners association/Levy Clearance Certificate). Rates are paid from July-June each year.
• arrange for the cancellation of the existing bond.

Before documents are lodged with the Deeds Office…

• a Rates Clearance Certificate has to be issued.
• a Transfer Duty Receipt must be issued. If the money for this is coming from the sale of another house, the attorney may not be able to get the Transfer Duty Receipt until transfer of the first house has been completed.
• a Bond Cancellation Certificate must be issued.
• the bond attorneys draw up all their documents (they can only do this once they receive a Fly Sheet from the transferring attorney).

Once the bond attorney and transferring attorney have everything ready, the documents are lodged with the Deeds Office about 10 to 12 working days before registration. If the Deeds Office rejects something (and there is always that chance), whatever it is must be amended and re-lodged. This can cause a delay of up to ten days.

HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE?
It can take up to three months from the date of sale for the property to be transferred into the buyer’s name. For this reason, your agent will normally recommend that a firm date for possession be included in the Agreement of Sale and that the buyer pays the seller an agreed monthly occupational interest from that date until transfer. (Should transfer take place during the month, occupational interest is charged on a pro-rata basis and is monitored by the attorneys.)

What can delay the process?

• Complications in a linked sale
• Delays in guarantees
• You or the buyer not supplying all required documents or delaying signing documents
• The buyer not paying transfer duty and costs promptly, or not coming up with the balance of the purchase price when required
• Transfer documentation being rejected by the Deeds Office due to a clerical error

What can you do to speed up the process?

• Prepare copies of your IDs, marriage Certificate, ANCs, etc.
• Ensure that your rates or sectional title levies are paid up to date
• Ensure that your bond is paid up to date