TITLE DEEDS

What is a Title Deed?

A Title Deed is a legal document that proves ownership of your property. It also contains some important information such as the formal description of the property, the purchase date and price of the property and the conditions of title. It is therefore important to keep you Title Deed safe.

What happens to the original Title Deed after registration?

I often get calls from clients saying that they can’t find their Title Deeds, only to find out later that their property is still bonded, and the Title Deeds is with the Bank. It is therefore imperative to understand how the process works.

On day of registration of transfer of a property, the Purchaser becomes the owner of the property. The Deeds Office delivers the original Title Deed to the Transfer Attorney after the documents have been microfilmed. The Transfer Attorney is then obliged to send the original title deed to the Bond Attorney, who must deliver the original Title deed to the Bank. Only once the bond has been cancelled or if no bond was registered over the property, the original Title Deed is delivered to the Purchaser.

The Original Title deed is lost, what now?

In Terms of Regulation 68(1) of the Deeds Office Regulations, the owner of the property to apply to the Registrar of Deeds for the issue of a copy to replace the lost original.

Since January 2020, Regulation 68(1) also requires that an advertisement must be published in a local newspaper circulating in the area where the property is situated, giving notice of the intention to apply for a copy to replace the original. Anyone who has an objection to the issue of the copy of the Title Deed, has a period of 2 weeks from date of publication of the notice to file their objection with the Registrar of Deeds. If no objections are filed, the Application may be lodged at the Deeds Office.

There is a mistake on the Title Deed, how can it be fixed?

While all information on the documents that is submitted at the Deeds Office undergoes a stringent process of checks and balances to ensure that what is submitted is the true and accurate position, errors do sometimes occur.

If any of the following information on the Title Deed is incorrect,

• The name or description of a person;
• The name or description of the property;
• Any of the conditions applicable to the property;

the owner of the property must bring an application to have the mistake on the Title Deed rectified in terms of Section 4(1)(b) of the Deeds Registries Act.

I trust this overview has equipped you with the necessary knowledge regarding you Title Deed, if you however have any further questions, you are more than welcome to contact me for further assistance.