All property sales start off by the parties entering an essential written Sale Agreement / Deed of Sale in which the Seller, the Purchaser, the Property, Purchase Price, terms and conditions are specified. Once the parties have signed the deed of sale it constitutes a legally binding Agreement of Sale. The agreement must be signed by both the Seller and the Purchaser or a third party (agent) who has been authorised and appointed in terms of a special or general power of attorney to sign on behalf of a party to the agreement. A verbal contract for the sale of immovable property is unenforceable as the Law requires the agreement to be contained in a written deed of sale.

On Receipt of the Deed of Sale, the Conveyancer takes the necessary steps to effect the registration of the immovable property into the name of the Purchaser in the relevant Deeds office in which jurisdiction the property is situated. The Conveyancer will prepare the necessary transfer documents whereafter both the Seller and the Purchaser will be called to confirm an appointment at the office of the Conveyancer for signature of the transfer documents to enable him to effect the transfer.

• Signed deed of Sale;
• SARS information of the Estate Agency/ies and the Estate Agent/s;
• Confirmation of payment of the Deposit, the bond Grant (if the Purchaser is applying for loan approval), and relevant information.

• A written Power of Attorney;
• Proof of physical address (if Natural Person) or proof of registered address (if Juristic Person (Company, Close Corporation of Trust));
• If the Seller is a Natural Person, copy of Identity Book or ID card (if ID Card – front and back), proof of physical address, VAT number if applicable, income tax number, declaration in respect of marital and solvency status (a FICA questionnaire form will be provided by the EVA Inc. for completion whereafter the conveyancer will draft the relevant affidavits in accordance with the information provided on the questionnaire);
• If the Seller is a Juristic Person, copies of the Registration Certificate, Memorandum of Incorporation, Deed of Trust (if appliable), any resolution passed by the Members, Directors or Trustees or any other legal document from which authority may be established, VAT and Income Tax numbers, details of Bookkeeper or Auditor.
• Particulars of the Seller’s Current / Exiting Bond Holder if the property being sold is encumbered by a mortgage bond to enable the conveyancer to request bond cancellation figures from the Bond Holder (financial institution or Bank) and to request the necessary guarantee (if there is an outstanding settlement figure to be paid) from the Purchaser’s Bond Attorney. The Seller must be advised that should the Seller request cancellation figures on a bond that has not yet been paid up, the bond holder is very likely to add a penalty interest in respect of such notice. This can be avoided by informing your bond holding bank timeously of your intention to sell as they will then waive such a penalty amount after 90-days’ notice to the bond holder. The Existing Bond Holder will appoint a Cancellation Attorney to attend to the cancellation of the existing bond and issue such Attorney with Cancellation Figures (if the bond is not paid up);
• An Electrical Wiring Certificate of Compliance (ECOC) or COC Certificate (COC) is a legal document also known as a compliance certificate which verifies the electrical installation at a specific premise on a specific inspection date is compliant with all the legal requirements as stipulated in the Electrical Installations Occupational Health and Safety Act. The Occupational Health and Safety Act lays out the law when it comes to the implementation of electrical work done by electricians;
• An Electrical Fence Certificate of Compliance (EFCOC) (if the property is fenced by an electrical fence) set out in the regulations of the Occupational Health and Safety Act, an electric fence COC verifies that the electrical work on your electric fence is up to date with the regulations required by the South African National Standards;
• A Gas Compliance Certificate (if relevant – if property contains any Gas installations). A Gas CoC issued by a registered gas installer is required for any permanent gas installation. All gas installations must have a Certificate of Compliance (Gas CoC) pursuant to the Pressure Equipment Regulations established under the Occupation Health and Safety Act (No 85 of 1993), effectively confirming that the installation has been fully inspected and judged to be safe and leak free.

• Proof of physical address (if Natural Person) or proof of registered address (if Juristic Person (Company, Close Corporation of Trust));
• If the Purchaser is a Natural Person, copy of Identity Book or ID card (if ID Card – front and back), proof of physical address, VAT number if applicable, income tax number, declaration in respect of marital and solvency status (a FICA questionnaire form will be provided by the EVA Inc. for completion whereafter the conveyancer will draft the relevant affidavits in accordance with the information provided on the questionnaire);
• If the Purchaser is a Juristic Person, copies of the Registration Certificate, Memorandum of Incorporation, Deed of Trust (if appliable), any resolution passed by the Members, Directors or Trustees or any other legal document from which authority may be established, VAT and Income Tax numbers, details of Bookkeeper or Auditor;
• If the sale is subject to a condition that the Purchaser must first sell his own property before he will be able to continue with purchase of the Seller’s property, the Purchaser must provide the name and contact details as well as a copy of his sale agreement to the conveyancer who will be attending his purchase from the Seller;
• If the purchaser is applying for loan approval from a financial institution of bank, he must provide details of the bond registration attorney who will be attending to the registration of his mortgage bond over the property being purchased by him;
• The Purchaser must be informed that if the seller is not Registered as a VAT Vendor, he will be liable to pay transfer duty in accordance with the gazetted transfer duty scales (obtainable form the Website of SARS). If the Seller is VAT Registered he will be liable to pay VAT on the sale of his property. If both the Seller and the purchaser are registered as VAT Vendors and the property is sold as a income bearing going concern, then the sale might be subject to VAT charged a zero rate (0% VAT / R0.00 Vat).

• Transfer and/or bond documents are drawn
• Account prepared for both seller and purchaser
• Both Seller and Purchaser are telephoned to arrange an appointment for signature
• The Purchaser is requested to pay the balance of the purchase price, costs, and disbursements
• Guarantees are requested from the Bond Attorneys

• Obtain transfer duty receipt from SARS
• Obtain a clearance certificate from Municipality

Forward guarantee to transferring attorneys and/or bond cancellation attorneys (if there is a settlement amount of the existing bond), payment of bond cancellation costs to the existing bondholder’s cancellation attorney. After receipt of clearance certificate and transfer duty receipt:- Liaise with the attorneys who attend to the various simultaneous transactions to arrange lodgement (the transferring attorneys, the bond cancellation attorneys and the bond attorneys must all add a DOTS tracking sticker to every lodgement folder in the batch whereafter they arrange to lodge their deed simultaneously in order for the batch to be linked up in the Deeds office for simultaneous registration of the transfer and bond as well as cancellation of the existing bond, if any).

• All parties must be advised of registration;
• Guarantees must be paid out by notification to the relevant banks/financial institutions;
• Balance of the purchase price must be paid to the Seller (if a deposit to that effect was held by the transferring attorney in trust);
• Render final statement of account;
• Request refund/s (if applicable) on any rates and levy payments, etc. If there is a refund due to the Seller on his cancelled mortgage account, the relevant bank will normally pay such refund within 4 to 5 weeks after Cancellation of the bond.