Property Law
1. SUMMARY OF SERVICES
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Preparation and consideration of all agreements to acquire, sell or lease immovable property
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Transfer of property
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Land Claims and related Land Claims Court Work
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Aspects to consider before acquiring land
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Evictions
2. INTRODUCTION
Property Law for purposes of this section refers to immovable property (as opposed to movable property) and discusses some aspects of ownership of various types of immovable property such as farms, houses, townhouses, flats, buildings and various matters in this regard.
3. THE CONSTITUTION
The right to own property in South Africa is entrenched in Section 25 of our Constitution, Act 86 of 1996. It explains that no one may be deprived of property except in terms of laws of the land and no law may permit arbitrary (random) deprivation of property. In terms of subsection two, property may only be expropriated for a public purpose (or in the public interest) subject to compensation either been agreed to or approved by a court. The amount of the compensation, the time and manner of payment must be just and equitable.
4. PREPARATION AND INTERPRETATION OF AGREMEENTS
It is quite interesting to note how much litigation exists in South Africa based on written agreements for the purchase and sale of houses, farms and other immovable property. In this day and age and with available technology people still enter into agreements worth millions of Rand without reading the agreement or having an agreement interpreted by a competent attorney.
In terms of legislation all agreements for the purchase and sale of immovable property must be in writing and signed by the parties thereto. Lease agreements on the other hand do not have to be in writing. Our advice is always to enter into written agreements to safeguard your rights and to create certainty.
5. TRANSFER OF IMMOVABLE PROPERTY
While an agreement set outs the terms upon which a purchaser acquires a property from another, the property is only legally transferred (or conveyed) from the one to the other when registration of transfer takes place in the Deeds Office.
The head of each Deeds Office (there is one for each province) is referred to as the Registrar and in terms of Section 16 of the Deeds Registries Act 47 of 1937, a property can only lawfully be conveyed from one person to another by means of a deed of transfer executed or attested to by the Registrar.
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