Endorsements
Key Takeaways:
Sometimes certain restrictions are placed on a property. These are known as endorsements.
An endorsement can be a mortgage bond, mineral rights, interdicts (caveat or attachment) and section 25 real rights to extend.
The deeds office will not permit the transfer of any property until an endorsement (for example an interdict) has been uplifted or otherwise dealt with.
Conveyancing relates to the legal process that transfers ownership of the home from the seller to the buyer. The conveyancer (who is an attorney) is usually appointed by the seller, but paid for by the buyer (the fact that the fees are normally covered by the buyer is simply a rule of thumb. It’s not something that is necessarily set in stone and a different arrangement can be negotiated in your agreement of sale).
What is Conveyancing?
Conveyancing is not only a complicated process, but a time consuming one as well. Particularly in transactions related to the subdivision or consolidation of properties, the registration of servitudes or transfers of both divorce or deceased estates.
Benaters are specialists in the field of property and conveyancing and are perfectly poised to assist their clients with all matters of property transfers. Get in touch with them today to see how they can assist you.
What does the transfer of property entail?
Once a seller has accepted an offer to purchase (meaning the transfer process has officially begun), the buyer must produce proof that that their bond application has been successful.
Following that, the seller must then appoint a transfer attorney, (who is a conveyancing attorney) to handle the transfer process. Transferring attorneys are one of three attorneys who will play an important role in the home buying process. This team of attorneys includes
the transfer attorney, or the conveyancer who is responsible for registering the property in the new owner’s name,
the bond attorney (appointed by the bank) who is responsible for registering the bond in the home buyer’s name, and
the cancellation attorney (appointed by the bank) who is responsible for attending to the existing bond cancellation.
Once the transfer duty has been paid, all documents have been lodged at the Deeds Office and the transfer attorney has finalised their accounts and paid over all proceeds to the seller, commission to the agent and refunded any credit that is due to the seller (within 12 months), registration of the property (meaning the purchaser is now the new rightful owner of the home) should then occur.
What does a Conveyancer do?
Firstly, it must be noted that no property sale or transfer can be concluded without having a qualified conveyancer on board.
A conveyancer is a lawyer that has passed an additional conveyancing qualification exam and is a specialist in the field of property and conveyancing. They perform a vital function where completing a property transaction is concerned.
Conveyancers attend to the process of transferring legal ownership of fixed property from one person (or a company or trust) to another. In a nutshell, this process amongst other things, involves ensuring the deed of sale meets all the legal requirements, including requesting and collecting supporting information (such the mortgage bond, cancellation figures, title deeds from the seller’s bank, compliance certificates from the seller, and the amounts from the municipality for a rates clearance certificate).
The conveyancer is also tasked with drafting all the necessary documentation (such as a “power of attorney to pass transfer” for the seller to sign, a declaration in respect of marital status, ID Number as well as the bond registration documentation for the purchaser when registering the bond) that needs to be lodged with the deeds office to finalise the registration of the sale.
What is an endorsement?
Sometimes certain restrictions are placed on a property. These are known as endorsements. An endorsement can be a mortgage bond, mineral rights, interdicts (caveat or attachment) and section 25 real rights to extend. These are the most common.
How do you deal with endorsements?
Your instructed Conveyancer (like Benaters) will need to undertake a deeds search on your behalf under the heading “endorsements” to understand what endorsement have been listed on a property you may be interested in.
Note: The deeds registry will not permit the transfer of any property until the endorsement (for example an interdict) has been uplifted or otherwise dealt with.
Why should you hire a Conveyancer to handle an endorsement?
There are many legal aspects that need to be taken into consideration depending on the type of endorsement listed on the property. Each endorsement will have its own set of complexities. For example, with an interdict, your Conveyancer will need to obtain the details of the interdict from the Deeds office. Depending on the details and reason for the interdict, this could impact the decision to sell the property and/or delay the transfer of the property once it is sold.
Therefore, it is crucial that you consult with a suitably qualified and reputable Conveyancer (like those at Benaters) who will be able to guide and advise you on how best to proceed depending on your specific circumstances (and what endorsement is in place) and thereby ensure that the whole process, from start to finish, proceeds smoothly and without unnecessary delays, hitches or hardships.
Why should you trust Benaters to handle your endorsement?
We have dealt with many different types of endorsements over the years and we are therefore able to draft the necessary documentation (whatever may be required) in order to ensure the proper and correct transfer of the property happens in the Deeds Office – a process we have been through many, many times.
We are proud to be able to offer Conveyancing, a specialised niche service to you, our clients. We take our duties as Conveyancers very seriously (always keeping in mind the impact a property transfer can have on an individual or family) and therefore hold our work to very high standards. You can trust us with your property, because we treat the entire process as if we were going through it ourselves.
We are here to help you. In any way we can!
So please, get in touch and let us handle your property transfer in the best way we know how – professionally and with the utmost due care.