'Deeds office strike could be disastrous'

The news that civil servants in the Cape Town deeds office are joining the countrywide strike is disturbing to the Cape's property sector, says Anton du Plessis, chief executive of Vineyard Estates.

"Any delay in the transfer of property can be disastrous. Large sums of money which clients had expected to have in their possession are held up and anticipated transactions are jeopardised," Du Plessis says.

"Then, too, people who counted on being able to move into new homes on certain dates may find this is not possible or that they are having to pay occupational rent on their own properties. Often they are forced to move out of their existing homes as their leases have expired."

Du Plessis says the situation can be particularly difficult if one of the parties is moving overseas.

In view of the disruption that would follow a hold-up of transfers, he says the property sector would welcome the government declaring deeds office work an essential service.

"The government itself will lose out heavily from hold-ups at the deeds office.

"In Newlands, Kenilworth, Claremont, Bishopscourt and Constantia alone, in the month of June, transactions worth R306 million were reported by estate agents registered with the Institute of Estate Agents.

"Considering that these suburbs represent only a tiny segment of the deeds office traffic, it is clear that the government will lose significantly on interest that would have been earned on that revenue.

"In addition, it has to be realised that some of the transactions will probably fall through because of the unexpected delays.

"On these transfer duties alone, the government stands to lose millions in revenue."

Weekend Property supplement (Saturday Argus)

Posted at 09:30AM Aug 16, 2010 by Editor in Market  |