1st UP – The Estate Agent.

Well, you’ve obviously met him or her by now. That’s the person that ‘sold’ you the property; the one that introduced you to the seller and assisted you and the seller to sign the contract.

In 2nd place – The Bond Originator.

There is usually a person that assists the buyer to obtain bond quotes from the banks. This person is the bond originator.

Attorneys everywhere you look.

Most of the time there are up to 3 attorneys working together to transfer a property:

  1. The transfer attorney – That is the attorney, chosen by the seller, that handles the transfer of the property. This attorney keeps all the strings together.
  2. The cancellation attorney – the seller usually has a bond. This bond must be cancelled. They do that.
  3. The registration attorney – the buyer usually uses a bond to buy the property. This attorney gets appointed by the bank to do this registration.
  4. The correspondent attorneys – Attorneys 1, 2 and 3 can be situated at various places in SA, but the property needs to be registered in a deeds office that is in Pretoria, or Cape Town, for instance. Attorneys 1, 2 and 3, each has a correspondent attorney 4, 5 and 6 that deals with the deeds office on their behalf.

Be pro-active. Be prepared. Where law and finance collide.