Your Property Transfer
Questions, Finally Answered

This is one of the first things that surprises people: in most of South Africa, it is actually the seller's right — not the buyer's — to appoint the conveyancing attorney who handles the transfer. This is long-standing custom across almost every province, and unless the two parties have agreed something different in their sale agreement, the seller takes the lead on this appointment.

That said, the parties are free to agree otherwise. If both the buyer and seller reach a different arrangement and record it in the sale agreement, that agreement governs. Many private sales between family members, for example, simply agree upfront on a single conveyancer that both parties are comfortable with.

There is one notable regional exception worth knowing about. In KwaZulu-Natal, there is an ongoing debate about this rule — one line of thinking holds that it is in fact the purchaser who has the right to appoint the conveyancer (a view supported by older case law), while the more widely-held view aligns KZN with the rest of the country. Either way, the sale agreement remains king: whatever the parties record in writing prevails.

In a typical property sale, there are often three separate law firms working simultaneously, each playing a distinct and regulated role. Understanding who does what will save you a great deal of confusion when multiple attorneys start sending you documents.

There is also a third role — the cancellation attorney — who is appointed by the seller's existing bank to cancel the old mortgage bond that sits over the property. The seller's bank instructs this firm, not the seller.

This question often catches people off guard because of a common misconception: many sellers assume they will need to appear in person at the Deeds Office to sign the deed of transfer. In reality, neither the seller nor the buyer ever signs the actual deed of transfer. That document is signed by the conveyancer, acting as the seller's agent under a written authority called a power of attorney.

What you do need to sign — typically at a single meeting with the conveyancing office — is the power of attorney itself (in the case of the seller), along with several supporting documents like affidavits confirming your marital status, solvency, and identity. The buyer will sign their own set of documents including the transfer duty declaration.

If you genuinely cannot come in person — perhaps due to illness, distance, or another commitment — you can authorise someone else to sign on your behalf. This requires a special power of attorney drawn up in your favour of a trusted representative. However, this does need to be set up correctly in advance, so communicate with your conveyancer as early as possible.

The documentation involved in a property transfer can feel like a lot, but most of it is standard and your conveyancer will prepare everything for your signature. Here is what each party can generally expect:

If you are the Seller (Transferor):

If you are the Buyer (Transferee):

This is a question we get asked a lot, particularly after the growth of remote working and digital transactions. The honest answer is: parts of the process are already electronic, but one crucial document still cannot be.

Beyond that, however, the conveyancing process has embraced a considerable amount of electronic administration. The transfer duty declaration and payment to SARS, for example, is handled entirely through eFiling — there is no paper involved. Banks now issue mortgage bond guarantees electronically in most cases. Communication between attorneys, banks, and the Deeds Office is largely digital. The Deeds Registry itself uses a computerised system that conveyancers access remotely.

As for signing your documents from a different city — you can certainly communicate with your conveyancer remotely by email and phone throughout the process. However, the power of attorney and supporting affidavits require your original wet-ink signature in front of witnesses or a commissioner of oaths. Some firms, including ours, can arrange for you to sign before a commissioner of oaths at a convenient location, after which the documents are couriered to us.

This is understandably one of the things buyers are most concerned about — and it is good news. Your deposit is legally protected while the transfer is in progress. It does not go to the seller, the estate agent, or anyone else until registration is complete.

When you pay a deposit, it goes into the conveyancing attorney's dedicated trust account — a separate, regulated account that is not part of the firm's operating funds. The Legal Practice Act requires attorneys to keep client funds strictly separate in this way, and the account is regulated by the Legal Practitioners Fidelity Fund.

The deposit remains in trust until the transfer is registered at the Deeds Office. Only at that point does the transfer attorney release the funds — paying out the seller, settling any bond cancellation balance, paying the estate agent's commission (if applicable), and accounting for all other disbursements.

If for some reason the sale falls through before registration — say, a suspensive condition (such as bond approval) is not met — the conveyancer must return your deposit to you in accordance with the terms of the sale agreement.

A standard residential transfer in the Western Cape typically runs between six and twelve weeks from instruction to Deeds Office registration. This timeline is not arbitrary — several regulatory steps must happen in sequence, and some depend on third parties like banks, the municipality, and SARS. That said, there is quite a bit that can either speed things up or cause unnecessary drag.

What tends to cause delays:

In urgent cases — for example, where occupation is needed quickly or a seller has already purchased elsewhere — conveyancers can take steps to prioritise and expedite certain parts of the process. Urgent Deeds Office restorations are also possible in narrow circumstances. Speak to your conveyancer about what is possible in your specific situation.

Property transactions involving parties abroad are more common than you might expect — particularly in the Western Cape, where many buyers and sellers divide their time between South Africa and overseas. The good news is that being abroad does not prevent your transfer from proceeding, but it does require some extra planning and specific authentication steps.

The core solution is a special power of attorney, signed abroad, that authorises either a trusted local representative or the conveyancer directly to act on your behalf. The challenge is that a document signed in a foreign country for use in South Africa must have its signature authenticated in a way that South African law recognises.

How authentication works depends on where you are:

For buyers abroad, the financial aspects are handled separately: guarantees can be issued electronically by most banks, and your deposit can be wired directly into the conveyancer's trust account from anywhere in the world. The paperwork authentication is generally the only practical hurdle for overseas parties.