Most people know that transfer costs need to be paid when buying a property and everybody knows that NO transfer duty is payable for transactions below R900 000. Unfortunately, a lot of people confuse transfer costs and transfer duty in that they think it is the same thing. They then think that there are no costs involved when transferring their new property to their name, which is not correct.

Transfer duty is part of the total transfer costs payable to register the property to the new owner. When you received a quote from an attorney to transfer a property into your name, it includes the transfer duty payable on the transaction. Transfer duty is the part of the total transfer costs that is payable to the government. The rest are the attorney’s costs (their fees and miscellaneous charges relating to the transfer process).

During the transfer process, the attorney will phone you, the purchaser, to pay certain fees at different times. This is the transferring attorney who was specified on the Offer to Purchase.

Suddenly, you receive a phone call from another attorney, whom you don’t know, also asking you to do payments. Who is this attorney and why is there now a second attorney involved in your property transaction?

This is the bond attorney. Bond attorneys are responsible for registering the bond in your name on behalf of the bank who granted the bond. The bank appoints the bond attorney.

The transfer attorney (the one mentioned on the Offer to Purchase) works with the bond attorney to complete the registration process. Unfortunately, most of the time, they neglect to inform the purchaser who exactly the bond attorney is and therefore cause a lot of confusion.

In future, when you purchase a property, request the details of the bond attorney to ensure that you are dealing with the correct attorneys in the registration process of your new property.

 

Should you wish to consult with our experts on how to best manage your property, please contact us here. 

Source: http://treocmedia.com/article/664/TRANSFER-COSTS,-TRANSFER-DUTY-AND-THE-TWO-ATTORNEYS