Ongoing health and safety issues at the Johannesburg Deeds Office are causing severe delays in the processing of property transfers, and property sellers and buyers in the metro unfortunately need to be prepared for registrations to take longer than usual, says Barry Davies, COO of the Chas Everitt International property group.

“Since December, the office has faced elevator shutdowns and protests over seriously unsafe working conditions in the 52-year-old building it occupies, temporary closures and a growing backlog of transactions. Johannesburg conveyancers currently estimate this at more than 5,000 files, or almost half the usual number of transfers registered per month.

Despite a formal agreement to relocate about 170 staff and deeds examiners to new premises, this has not happened yet, and recent flooding in the building has added to the chaos. We understand that there are now plans to secure urgent temporary accommodation for the office by next month, and a longer-term lease by September, but we anticipate that these relocations, if they take place, will cause further delays in transfer registrations”.

The result? The industry suffers the consequences

Michelle Cohen, principal property practitioner at Leapfrog Property Group Johannesburg North East shares some of the issues resulting from the deeds office drama, “Dates of occupation were delayed,  rates and levies clearance figures expired and had to be repaid for and re-issued, a couple of elderly people who were in poor health passed away which meant that the offer had to be redrawn, resubmitted and get approval by the Master of the High Court creating up to 24 months delay on transfer.

Properties were left vacant due to the date of occupation being on transfer, and the properties were vandalised.  

Attorneys and agents took a huge amount of flak from unhappy sellers and buyers, and compounded with this, agents and agencies reliant on the property transfers for cash flow were left high and dry financially for up to 3 months due to no transfers taking place.  

Some of the buyer’s bonds were marked NTU (not taken up) by the banks, and bond applications had to be resubmitted, that in itself creating another delay for transfer”.

Davies concurs, “Indeed, it appears that home sellers, developers, estate agents and conveyancers in Johannesburg can all expect to encounter extended registration timelines and delays in accessing their sale proceeds, commissions and fees for at least the next few months. And this will not only have negative financial implications for the whole real estate sector in the city but will also slow the flow of many millions of Rands into the economy as a whole.”

Meanwhile, he says, home buyers and sellers also need to be prepared for some banking reforms just introduced to add time to the property sales process.

Banking reforms could introduce more delays

“The regulatory changes introduced by the banking sector are aimed at improving transparency, protecting consumers and strengthening the country’s financial system against fraud and money laundering.

“They include mandatory disclosure of fees, meaning that banks must not only clearly communicate all charges relating to any account they open, including home loan accounts, but also obtain written confirmation from the customer that these are understood.

“In addition, the banks must now undertake biometric (physical) verification of identity for all high value transactions, including many related to property, and stricter background and affordability checks on credit or loan applications, which can be expected to slow approval timelines.”

Davies says that while home loan approvals could previously be expected within two to five working days, this could stretch to seven or more working days under the new regulations. “This may not seem significant, but it does have real implications for Offers to Purchase that include clauses requiring the buyers to obtain bond approval within a certain time frame for the sale to proceed.

“A longer approval period could result, for example, in an offer becoming null and void because insufficient time was allowed for the buyer to meet this suspensive condition. This would then allow a seller to accept a different offer, leaving the original buyer out in the cold.

“Consequently, buyers now need to double check that their Offers to Purchase include realistic timeframes for bond approval, ideally with some leeway for delays as the new banking regulations are implemented.”

How did the Deeds Office debacle come about?

While it now seems that the Deeds Office will be relocating to a temporary location next month, a look at the timeline as laid out by Davies, paints a less optimistic picture: 

Mid-December 2024 – The Dept of Employment and Labour issued the Chief Registrar a Prohibition and Contravention Notice with a 30-day deadline for non-compliance with occupational health and safety (OHS) regulations in Marble Towers, the building in central Johannesburg which houses the Johannesburg Deeds Office.

Concerns included malfunctioning elevators, construction activities in parts of the building, poor ventilation, and potential asbestos contamination. The Johannesburg Attorneys Association (JAA), staff, and the Public Servants Association (PSA) raised these issues. The notice expired in mid-January 2025, but the building remained open despite few, if any, of the compliance issues having been addressed.

Late February 2025 – The Department of Employment and Labour announced the shut down of lifts for safety reasons, and the Deeds Office was then closed due to staff protests at the unsafe working conditions. This occurred amid the failure of a plan to transfer lodgements using the ground floor of the building and implement a rotational work system to prevent overcrowding.

The Deeds Office falls under the Dept of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, and the PSA then once again asked the Director General of the department and the Chief Registrar of Deeds to urgently address pressing health and safety issues affecting about 170 employees working in Marble Towers, which is a 32-storey building built in 1973 and previously known as Sanlam Centre.

There followed an eight-day closure of the office that meant no new transfers at all could be lodged, which translated to a “freeze” on property transactions and any financing approvals contingent on sales being concluded. The office typically processes around 12,000 deeds a month, and it is estimated that a backlog of around 5,000 transactions built up during the closure and due to subsequent problems.

This had (and is still having) a severe financial impact on the whole real estate sector, including property sellers, developers, estate agents and conveyancers, since none of them can access their proceeds or fees until transfers are registered.

Early March 2025 – An agreement was reached between Dept of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development , Chief Registrar and PSA to relocate the Johannesburg Deeds Office within six weeks, and assurances were given that contingency measures would be put in place to ensure that service delivery at Marble Towers was not further disrupted.

End of April 2025 – No apparent steps taken to relocate, so the JAA wrote to the Director-General of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, Ramasodi Mooketsa, the Chief Registrar of Deeds, Carlize Knoesen, and the Registrar of Deeds in Johannesburg, Makaziwe Ntuli.

It noted that conveyancers and their staff did not have the luxury of not attending at the deeds registry and were being forced to tolerate “stressful working conditions” imposed on them by the concessions being made to deeds office staff.  

These concessions included allowing examiners to take some deed documents home for processing. Still, the JAA also noted that it had previously raised serious concerns about deeds leaving the deeds registry offices. This concern was proved to be well-founded when an examiner was violently assaulted and robbed of numerous lodged matters.

It also said it was “most disconcerting” that the department did not appear to be overly concerned by this risk to the integrity of the deeds registry system and the public’s security of land title.

May 2025 – Flooding started to occur in parts of Marble Towers, and the JAA said that as steps had still not been taken to relocate within the promised six-week timeframe, the conveyancing profession might seek a court order compelling the department to do so. It was then informed that a tender had gone out for a temporary building to be occupied by 1 September, but that Registrar was looking for urgent alternative accommodation in Braamfontein for June, July and August.

Meanwhile, completely new accommodation for the Deeds Office in downtown Johannesburg is now only expected to be ready in 2027.