Selling your property involves yourself, the buyer, the bank and various attorneys. Understanding the process will make it less stressful for you and give you the opportunity to prepare all the required documents to speed up the process and have the necessary cash available when required. (yes, it does cost you money upfront to sell your property)
Before you put your property on the market, please check the home staging article to ensure you get the best possible price.
The Selling process
Offer to Purchase
Once a buyer has signed an offer to purchase, in most cases it will be subject to a bond being granted by a bank, the buyer needs to apply for a bond with his bank or a bond originator.
Approval
Once the bond is approved the bank will advise the bond attorney to register the bond.
Transfer
You the seller will then advise the transferring attorneys to begin transfer of the property. The bank will then provide the transfer attorney with the title deed and the settlement figures if there is still a bond over the property. The transferring attorney requests a statement of rates and taxes from the local municipality. The local municipality will provide a figure which is approximately three months of your average rates and taxes which will need to be paid by you before the transfer can proceed. The bond and transfer attorneys correspond regarding the guarantees which stipulate the guarantee requirements for the draft deed.
Settlement
A guarantee from the bank is sent to the attorneys who will prepare to cancel the bond over the property once the guarantee has been received.
Legal
The transferring attorney will ask the buyer and the seller to come and sign the transfer documents. Once the buyer has paid the transfer costs, the transferring attorney then pays the rates and taxes as well as the transfer duty fees. Once this is done a bond attorney will then prepare all the documents for the bond together with the relevant account. Once all the documents have been prepared the buyer will sign them and pay the costs. Thereafter the bond attorney will prepare and issue the necessary guarantees and have them forwarded to the transferring attorney who will prepare the bond documents for the lodgement in the deeds office. Once the transferring attorney has received the guarantees, they will then be forwarded to the cancellation attorney. The cancellation attorney will get the consent for the cancellation from the bank which holds the sellers bond. When all the documents have been signed and all costs have been paid the transfer, the new bond and the cancellation bond documents are prepared by the respective attorneys for the lodgement in the deeds office. As per the agreement between the deeds office and the attorneys concerned all the documents are lodged. It usually takes about 2-3 weeks for the deeds office to check the documents before they are ready for registration by the attorneys on the same day.
The entire process can take up to three months in the absence of any hiccups.
How to avoid delay in your property transfer
All personal information of the seller and / or buyer must be provided
The seller must provide the details of the bank holding the existing bond.
The bond holder must provide the cancellation figures and the title deeds to the transferring attorney. (The seller can get involved to ensure it is dome speedily)
You must have the rates figures (local authority) and/or the clearance certificate (transferring attorney).
The buyer must pay the deposit timeously in terms of the agreement (if required).
All guarantees to be provided.
The buyer must pay the bond and transfer costs on time.
The seller must not delay in signing the transfer documents.
The buyer must not delay obtaining government capital subsidy approval or employee subsidy documents for new bondholders, and with any other requirements the bank might need.
The buyer must not delay in signing the transfer and/or bond documentation.
Try to have one attorney to handle all of the requirements.