00Conveyancing · Pretoria

You will always know where your transfer is.

Conveyancing is slow for reasons that are mostly not the conveyancer’s. Being kept in the dark about it is entirely the conveyancer’s. Every file here gets a written status line every Friday.

012 000 0000 What it costs

File WA-2611

Updated Friday 16:02

Property: 14 Example Avenue, Lynnwood
Stage: Awaiting rates clearance figures
Waiting on: City of Tshwane
Applied: 11 working days ago
Bond: Approved · documents signed
Expected registration: Mid-November

Every client sees this. Nobody has to ask for it.

01Why it takes as long as it does

Two matters, two firms, one registration date.

Almost every buyer believes the delay is their conveyancer. Usually it is not one matter running slowly. It is two matters running in parallel at two different firms, and the deeds office will not register either until both are ready on the same morning.

01Track one

The transfer · us

Offer accepted
The instruction reaches us the same week
FICA and documents
Both parties, before anything else moves
Rates and levy clearance
The council sets this pace, not us
Transfer duty or VAT
Paid to SARS, receipt issued
Lodgement
The deeds office takes it from here

02Track two

The bond · your bank's attorney

Bond approved
Your bank instructs its own attorney
Bond documents signed
A separate appointment at a separate firm
Cancellation figures
The seller's existing bond is called up
Bond lodged
It must go in on the same day as the transfer

Both tracks must be ready on the same morning.

The deeds office registers them together or not at all. One outstanding rates clearance holds up a bond that has been ready for three weeks, and neither firm is obliged to tell you which side the hold-up is on. We tell you, every Friday, in writing.

02The transfer, stage by stage

Eight stages. Three of them are ours.

The three marked in blue are the ones we control. Publishing the other five costs us the excuse.

Instruction

The agent sends the signed offer. We open the file, check the parties and the property description, and write to both of you the same day.

Day 1

FICA and documents

Identity, address, marital status, tax number. This is the stage clients hold up most often. It is also the cheapest one to get right.

Week 1

Rates and levy clearance

We apply in week one because we cannot make it shorter. The municipality sets this pace. It is the longest stage and nobody warns you about it.

Weeks 2–8

Transfer duty or VAT

Paid to SARS once assessed. The receipt has to be in hand before anything can be lodged.

Weeks 3–5

Signature

Buyer and seller sign separately, at our offices. Twenty minutes each. You leave with a copy of everything.

Week 5

Lodgement

The transfer, the new bond and the cancellation of the old one go in together, on the same day. They rise or fall as one batch.

Week 6

Examination

Seven to ten working days when the office is running well. A note raised on any document sends the whole batch back and restarts this stage.

Weeks 7–9

Registration

The property is yours. The seller is paid the same day or the next. We telephone before we email.

Weeks 8–10

The transfer in full

03What it costs

Transfer duty is the big number, and it is not ours.

Most of what you pay goes to SARS and the deeds office. The conveyancing fee is the part everybody asks about and the smallest part of the bill.

Purchase price	Transfer duty
Up to R1,210,000	None
R1,210,001 – R1,663,800	3% of the value above R1,210,000
R1,663,801 – R2,329,300	R13,614 + 6% above R1,663,800
R2,329,301 – R2,994,800	R53,544 + 8% above R2,329,300
R2,994,801 – R13,310,000	R106,784 + 11% above R2,994,800
Above R13,310,000	R1,241,456 + 13% above R13,310,000

Illustrative figures on a demonstration site. A real firm’s page would carry the current Budget rates and the date they took effect.

On a purchase ofR2,100,000

Transfer duty to SARS: R39 786
Conveyancing fee: R38 995
Bond registration: R24 400
Deeds office and sundries: R4 850
Total: R108 031

The full schedule of costs

04What actually causes delays

Seven things hold up a transfer. We control one.

Once you can see whose desk a file is on, a weekly status line stops being a courtesy and becomes something you can hold us to. That is the point of printing it.

Hold-up	Whose desk	Typically
FICA documents outstanding	You	Days, once you send them
Rates clearance figures	The municipality	Two to eight weeks
Levy clearance	The body corporate	One to four weeks
Bond grant conditions	Your bank	Days to weeks
Compliance certificates	The seller	One to three weeks
Deeds office examination	The deeds office	Seven to ten working days
A rejected lodgement	Whoever made the error	Restarts examination

05Who we act for

Send us the offer to purchase. We open the file today.

You will have the list of what we need within the hour, and a status line every Friday until the day it registers.

012 000 0000 Send the documents