BRIEFING
BY THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN
SETTLEMENTS ON THE ISSUING OF
TITLE DEEDS
PRESENTATION TO THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE
ON HUMAN SETTLEMENTS
26 May 2010
Presentation will focus on the following…
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Introduction and Background
Legislative Mandate
Township Establishment process
Deeds Registration offices
Key Role-players in the Title Deed registration process
Process of title deed document at the Deeds registration
office
• Monitoring of Deeds registration process by the National
Department: Human Settlements
• Challenges
• Conclusion
Introduction and Background
• The registration of ownership and the handover of a Title Deed
to a beneficiary of a subsidy in the State’s Housing programme is
the ultimate step in the process leading to home ownership;
• The efficient completion of registrations of Title are sometimes
compromised as a result of delays in the other processes leading
up to this last step;
• There are several role-players: all three spheres participate and
several government departments are central to the process;
• There are legislations that govern the process;
• Once a title deed has been registered, it cannot be reversed
without a court order.
Legislative Mandate (Key Acts)
• The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa
• The Deeds Registries Act, (Act 47 of 1937 and its Amendments &
relevant regulations
• The Housing Act (Act 107 of 1997) and The Housing Code (as
updated)
• Development Facilitation Act
• Less Formal Township Act
Legislative Mandate
Constitution of republic of South Africa (Act 108 of 1996):
Chapter 2: Bill of Rights
Section 25: Property
5. The state must take reasonable legislative and other
measures, within its available resources, to foster conditions
which enable citizens to gain access to land on an equitable
basis.
6. A person or community whose tenure of land is legally
insecure as a result of past racially discriminatory laws or
practices is entitled, to the extent provided by an Act of
Parliament, either to tenure which is legally secure or to
comparable redress.
Legislative Mandate…
The National Housing Code (as amended) (legislated by the
Housing Act)
Volume 4: Incremental Interventions:
Integrated Residential Programme:
1.1.1 SECURITY OF TENURE
In line with the intent of the Comprehensive Plan to ensure that
housing should be an asset, persons under this Programme will
only qualify for a housing subsidy and/or other benefits where
they acquire the secure right to occupy, use or own a property in
terms of a tenure form which can be registered with a
competent authority.
Township Establishment Process
• It is also useful to remember that effect can only be given to any
legal process pertaining to land ownership, including the
registration of Title, after the official proclamation of the opening
of a Township Register
• Among the documents documents required to open a township
register are:
• The Original title deed of the property on which the proposed
township is to be established
• Approved conditions of establishment
• An approved General (Township Layout) Plan
• Section 70 of Act 1970
• Section 110 Certificate (where township applicant is the
Municipality)
Deeds Registration Offices:
Offices are situated in:
• Pretoria
• Cape Town
• Johannesburg
• Pietermaritzburg
• Bloemfontein
• King Willams Town
• Kimberley
• Vryburg
• Umtata
Deeds Offices and areas of Jurisdiction
LP
MP
NW
GP
FS
KZN
NC
EC
WC
Key Role-players
National Department: Human
Settlements – Policy; Funding &
Monitoring
Preparation of
Deeds and
Documents
Provincial Department
Developer &
Surveyor-General
Local
Municipality
Beneficiary
Conveyancer
Deeds Office
Adapted from Deeds Office (Pretoria) PPT
Process followed for houses constructed after
1994
• Identification of beneficiaries by Municipalities – approval if
qualify – allocated to a site in project - construction of house
• Completion of registration forms by the Service Provider
(Conveyance Firm) & signing of Power of Attorney
• Conveyancer submits forms to the Owner (Municipality and the
Provincial Department) for authorisation
• Clearance certificate/s issued by Municipality
• Conveyancer lodges Title Deed documents for registration with
the Deeds Office
Process followed for houses constructed after
1994
• Deeds Examiners verify Township information
• Issued Title Deeds are endorsed by the Deeds Office to prevent
beneficiaries from selling, letting and alienating properties for a
period of eight (08) years as per section 10 (a) and (b) of Housing
Act 107 of 1997 as amended
• Title Deed processed in batches, and if all in order – returned to
conveyancer (within 3-4 months if no issues are identified)
• Conveyancer updates database records
• Conveyancer delivers title deeds to registration initiator
Province/Municipality (or the Project Manager if applicable)
• Calling Letters sent out to beneficiaries to collect Title Deeds
• Title Deeds issued to registered owner/s
Deeds monitoring Process conducted quarterly
the National Department: Human Settlements
• Export beneficiary data from National Housing Subsidy Database
(NHSDB)
 Beneficiary ID number, Name
 Beneficiary Spouse ID Number, Name
• Export beneficiary data from Housing Subsidy System (HSS)
 Beneficiary ID number, Name and status
• Compare NHSDB and HSS data sets to extract only unique IDs
from both datasets
• Match Combined HSS and NHSDB data set against Deeds register
using 13 digit ID number (complete ID) then first 10 Digits of ID for
non-matching records.
DHS Beneficiary match against Deeds Data
National
Housing Subsidy
Database
(NHSDB)
Unique
beneficiary ID’s
Match
Housing Subsidy
System
(HSS) X 9
Beneficiary IDs match against deeds register:
1) Full 13 Digit ID search
2) First 10 digit ID Search
Combined
database of
Unique
Beneficiary IDs
National Deeds
Register
DHS Beneficiary
with Title Deed
Title deeds transferred
Total Title Deeds matched to a State Subsidy Beneficiary as
at end of March 2010 (1, 748, 339 Title Deeds matched)
550,000
500,000
450,000
400,000
350,000
300,000
250,000
200,000
150,000
100,000
50,000
0
497,829
251,807
267,149
246,930
193,690
102,575
100,140
52,426
35,793
EC
FS
GP
KZN
LP
MP
NC
NW
WC
Example: Municipal Initiative to accelerate
acquisition of Title Deeds by beneficiaries:
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•
Advocacy campaign to
create awareness
among citizens
Establishment of
regional centres close
to housing
developments
Administrative process
to easily locate title
deed document and
hand over to title holder
Municipal Initiative to accelerate acquisition
of Title Deeds by beneficiaries:
•
Tracking instrument put
in place to record
handing over of Title
Deed
Challenges that slow down or hinder the title
deed registration – Project implementation
• Township establishment blockages:
– The process itself is heavily administrative with prescribed
documents from role-players, that need to be signed and
made available
– Land ownership issues are not resolved
– Construction has proceeded before township has been
established
– General plan approval delayed / halted for amendments or
failed altogether
– Illegal occupation of demarcated sites in the township
– “Mix-up” in sites occupied by approved beneficiaries
Challenges that slow down or hinder the title
deed registration – Project implementation
• Township establishment blockages:
The Less formal Township Act and the Development Facilitation
Act were passed to speed up the process of township
establishment - in reality they do not. The same documents that
cause delays in an Ordinance township are required with Less
Formal and DFA townships – they just have different names.
These two types of townships do not required proclamation after
registration in the deeds office. Proclamation can be done in five
days after receipt of the letter of confirmation of registration
from the deeds office and as such does not make a considerable
difference in speeding up the process.
Challenges that slow down or hinder the title
deed registration – Project implementation
• Case in point: Blocked Township Register:
– Attridgeville Extension 17 – dating back to 1997 – land bought
by then Town Council from Iscor;
– Design of township completed and submitted;
– Flaw: a portion included in the design was land owned the
province – result was that ownership was not consolidated which is a requirement.
– 700 houses have been built and occupied, but there is no
Township Register to facilitate registering of Title Deeds.
Challenges that slow down or hinder the title
deed registration and issuing process
As a result of the long delay between the beneficiary receiving an
approved subsidy, being allocated a stand and the registration of
transfer, the following occurs:
• Upon allocation, the approved beneficiary cannot be found
• If found and allocated, upon registration of title, the beneficiary
may have sold or rented his house or is deceased
• In some projects it becomes necessary to conduct an occupation
audit prior to registration
• Illegal occupants are either evicted (takes 3 years or more) or
regularised depending on the approach of the municipality
• Title deeds could not be handed over to the occupant of the site
(could also be a result of informal change (selling) of
“ownership”)
Challenges that slow down or hinder the title
deed registration and issuing process
• Several stakeholders raise the matter of a backlog in
registrations at Deeds Registry Offices
• Delays in the delivery of the documents after registration to the
project management team or Municipal/Provincial office from
Deeds office and/or from the conveyancing firm
• Documents that are lodged at the Deeds registry being
incorrect or incomplete – returned to conveyancer but lies
inactive rather than being amended / updated and re-lodged
because of capacity and resource issues – documents
reportedly rejected up to 4 times!
Challenges that slow down or hinder the title
deed registration and issuing process
• Failed registrations not being re-lodged by conveyancer
seeking additional payment
• A complication in the arrangements is that the developer
could have been the municipality, province or an appointed
private developer/ Project Management Service provider
Challenges that slow down or hinder the title
deed registration and issuing process
• Registered title deeds being with-held by the conveyancer
because of non-payment of fees by the project owner
(province/Municipality/Project manager)
• Lapses & defaults in payments to be made by project
managers for services rendered - outstanding amounts
quoted in millions of rands
• Deeds office fees increased to R70 per erf
• Municipality confirms to conveyancer that they would pay for
opening of township registers
• However, no written confirmation that they will pay for
registration of transfers – work done on risk
Challenges that slow down or hinder the title
deed registration and issuing process
• Consequence of “delinking” sites from top structures from
2003/04 - If the site is not transferred at the time of handover
of the site, ownership is not fixed, and the site changes hands
unofficially many times before the top structure phase is
reached years later.
• Flaws in site allocation lists provided by the Municipality who
advises to which erf the beneficiary must be registered:
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Beneficiaries allocated to more than one stand
Same stand allocated to two different beneficiaries
Stands allocated to beneficiaries whose subsidies had been rejected
A husband and wife are allocated to two different stands (next to each
other)
Challenges that slow down or hinder the title
deed registration and issuing process
There are significant delays between the beneficiary
receiving an approved subsidy, being allocated a stand and
the registration of transfer, the following occurs:
• Upon allocation, the approved beneficiary cannot be
found
• In cases, when traced and allocated, upon registration,
the approved beneficiary has sold or rented his house
or is deceased
Challenges that slow down or hinder the title
deed registration and issuing process
• The practice of provinces using state attorney is proving too
slow, and in these cases private conveyancers should be
appointed
• Project managers delay payments further by:
– Not forwarding invoices to the Department upon
completion of work by the consultant
– Not making payment to the consultant upon receipt of
funds from the Department
• The reality is that the all inclusive transfer cost is
approximately R400 each (if there are no surveyor-general
matters outstanding) and additional funding is required to
conclude the process.
Challenges that slow down or hinder the title
deed registration and issuing process
• Difficulty in tracing of Title holders
• During visits to houses, other persons are in occupation of the
specific house
• Households substitute the originally approved beneficiary
• Unresolved diseased estates issues
• During visits to houses, other persons are in occupation of the
specific house
• Beneficiary apathy in responding to calls to collect Title deed
• Capacity and funding constraints within Municipalities and
Provincial Departments in dealing with land administration
issues
Conclusion
• There has been significant progress with the registration and
issuing of Title Deeds to beneficiaries of State subsidised houses in
several provinces in the last 2 – 3 years;
• There are still refinements that need to be made to the processes
and functions of role-players to expedite the issuing of title Deeds;
• In the beneficiary administration process, measures need to be
implemented to ensure the accuracy and completeness of the
information captured in respect of the beneficiary to support the
integrity of the Title Deeds registration process.
• There is a need to develop uniform and effective instruments /
systems / processes to record, and report on the Title Deeds
Registration process and the handing over of title deeds to the
owners of subsidised houses.
..issues that prevent us from implementing our plans..
THANK YOU
For NDHS noting purposes:
The presentation was compiled with inputs and information from:
• Deeds Registry Office, Pretoria (Dept. of Rural Dev & Land Reform
• The City of Tshwane (Deeds section)
• Western Cape Dept: Human Settlement
• Northern Cape Dept: Human Settlement
• Eastern Cape Dept: Human Settlement
• Gauteng Dept: Human Settlement
• Limpopo: Dept: Human Settlement
• Private Conveyancing company (Claudia Noble from Ntuli & Noble)
• The SIMS team (soliciting & gathering information)