South Africa
Deeds Registries Act, 1937
Registration of Deeds Regulations, 1963
Government Notice R474 of 1963
- Published in Government Gazette 466 on 29 March 1963
- Commenced on 1 May 1963
- [This is the version of this document as it was from 27 May 1963 to 14 September 1964.]
- [Amended by Registration of Deeds Regulations: Amendment (Government Notice R557 of 1963) on 27 May 1963]
Definitions
1. Regulations
The regulations published in Government Notice No. 1265 of the 29th July 1938; as amended by Government Notices Nos. 1045 of the 21st May 1948, 2758 of the 26th October, 1951, 740 of the 15th April, 1954, 314 of the 24th February, 1956, 682 of the 10th May, 1957, 1741 of the 23rd October, 1959, and 1306 of the 29th December, 1961, are hereby repealed.2. Definitions
In these regulations the expression "the Act" shall mean Act No. 47 of 1937 and any amendment thereof.3.
The expression “duly witnessed” shall for the purpose of these regulations mean attested as provided in section ninety-five of the Act.4.
The expression “administrative district” shall have the following meanings:—Assistant Registrar
5.
Every Assistant Registrar shall have power and authority to do any act or thing which may lawfully be done by the Registrar—Registration divisions and numbering of units
6.
The “ degree squares ” formed by the lines of latitude and longitude crossing the area served by any registry shall constitute registration divisions: Provided that such division shall follow the boundaries of the farm units whose greater area lies within the degree square forming such division.7.
The farm units falling within the limits of a registration division shall be numbered in numerical progression throughout the degree square generally from west to east and east to west alternately, in quarter degree squares commencing at the north-west corner of each quartet degree square: Provided that in the Cape Natal and Orange Free State Provinces, if deemed advisable by the Registrar of Deeds and the Surveyor-General concerned, the numbering of farm units may be confined within the limits of an administrative district instead of a registration division.8.
For the purpose of identifying erven, settlement holdings or lots (hereinafter called allotment units), it shall be the duty of the Registrar, in consultation with the Surveyor-General, to—9.
10.
After the numbering of allotment units has been completed within an allotment area as prescribed in regulation 8, the Registrar shall take whatever steps may be necessary—Registers and index
11.
As soon as may be after the coming into force of these regulations each Registrar shall, subject to the directions hereafter set forth, open and keep the following registers:—A. Land registers comprising
B. A Personal register
C. Contract registers
12.
13.
The additional amounts secured under the costs clause in a bond shall be disregarded in making an entry in any personal register respecting such bond.14.
When under the provisions of section forty-seven of the Act, the whole or any portion or share in a township or settlement is transferred the registration thereof shall be recorded on the fly-leaf of the register and not against the individual folios of such register.15.
In addition to the registers mentioned in regulation 11, each Registrar shall keep such registers as may be required by the Minister for the purpose of furnishing any required returns and for securing information for statistical purposes respecting deeds registered and acts performed in and searches made and information furnished by his Registry, as well as of the duties paid and fees collected in connection therewith.16.
Each Registrar shall keep a Register of Conveyancers.17.
Identity of persons
18.
19.
A Registrar shall have authority in connection with any deed or document tendered for execution, registration or record to call for evidence to establish the identity or non-identity of any party thereto with any person whose name appears in any register kept in his Registry.Preparation of deeds and documents and qualification of persons
20.
Deeds, powers, and other documents executed within the Republic lodged for execution, registration, or record must be written, printed, or typed on paper approved by the Registrar.21.
22.
Any spaces in a deed which have not been used shall be ruled through, and where a deed comprises more than one page the necessary catch-word shall be written at the foot of each page.23.
If in the opinion of the Registrar, the writing, typing, or printing in any deed, power, or other document lodged for attestation, execution or registration or for any other purpose, is owing to the faintness thereof, not calculated to secure durability, he may decline to attest, execute, register, or accept it, as the case may be.24.
25.
Every deed and document executed in or lodged for registration or record in a Deeds Registry shall disclose the place and date of execution thereof.26.
Every deed conferring title to land must quote the date and number of the grant, transfer, or other title by which the land is held, and also the date and number of the grant, transfer, or other title to which the diagram of the land is annexed or relates, as well as the name of the person, in whose favour such last-mentioned grant, transfer, or other title was made.27.
28.
29.
In the description of land conveyed or hypothecated in a deed or bond the extent thereof shall be expressed in words and figures.30.
In the description of land the term “share” shall be employed when an undivided share in a piece of land is being dealt with, and such share shall be expressed in one fraction in its lowest terms, the method of arriving at the result being also given in complicated cases.31.
32.
No portion of any piece of land shall, save as by the Act provided, be transferred except upon a diagram thereof.32bis.
When a piece of land has been separated into two or more parts by the deduction of one or more intervening portion or portions thereof, such parts forming the remaining extent shall not be regarded as being separate pieces of land for the purpose of sections forty, forty-one and forty-two of the Act.33.
Where it is sought to transfer or cede immovable property to, or register mortgage bonds or notarial bonds in favour of persons who have not attained majority, such transfers, cessions or bonds shall, subject to the provisions of section twenty-five of the Act, be made in the name of the minors and not in the name of their guardians, tutors or curators as the case may be.34.
35.
36.
Where a husband married in community of property desires to deal with land registered in the name of his wife the wife should affix her signature and the date thereof to the power of attorney in the presence of a witness as evidence that the marriage still subsists, and if she omits so to do, other satisfactory proof of such subsistence shall be produced.37.
Where in the circumstances contained in the proviso to sub-section (4) of section fifty-eight of the Act, it is necessary to pass transfer to the rehabilitated insolvent such transfer may be passed upon a power of attorney signed by the Master.38.
A certificate of rights to minerals in respect of the remainder of a township or settlement in terms of section seventy-one of the Act shall be issued only on written application of the owner of such remainder or his duly authorized agent.39.
The agreement referred to in sub-Section (s) of section three of the Act shall be upon a separate sheet of paper and shall be lodged in duplicate, one copy which shall be annexed to the original bond and the other filed with the registry duplicate or, in a manner determined by the Registrar.40.
41.
42.
The consent of the legal holder of any bond referred to in section twenty-seven of the Act shall be furnished in duplicate. Should a duplicate not have been furnished, a Registrar may accept a copy certified by a conveyancer or notary. The original shall be retained by the Registrar and the duplicate or copy shall be annexed to the bond.43.
Every deed of transfer, certificate conferring title to immovable property or mortgage bond shall be prepared by a conveyancer and shall bear an endorsement signed by such conveyancer that it was prepared by him, and he shall also initial personally all alterations or interlineations in such transfer, certificate or bond and every page thereof not requiring his signature if such transfer, certificate or bond is written on separate sheets; and no such transfer, certificate or bond shall be accepted for execution or registration which does not bear such endorsement and is not so initialled: Provided, however, that in cases where the alteration or interlineation does not, in the opinion of the Registrar, require initialling by the preparing conveyancer, such alteration or interlineation shall be initialled by the executing conveyancer. This proviso does not apply to a certificate of title.44.
Any power of attorney to perform an act in a Deeds Registry, deed of partition, authority for the performance of any of the acts mentioned in paragraphs (f), (g) and (h) and for cancellation, cessions and cancellations of cessions mentioned in paragraph (b), the releases, reductions of cover, and part payments specified in paragraph (j)bis of section three of the Act, agreement mentioned in paragraph (s) of section three of the Act, or any other consent by a bondholder, owner of immovable property or holder of any real right prescribed by the Act or regulations, executed in the Republic after the 1st September, 1928, and tendered for registration of record in a Deeds Registry, shall be prepared by a practising attorney, notary or conveyancer (not necessarily practising in the Province within which such Registry is situated), and shall bear an endorsement signed by the attorney, notary or conveyancer, who prepared such power, deed, authority, agreement or consent, that it was prepared by him; and no such power, deed, authority, agreement or consent, shall be accepted by a Registrar for registration or record which does not bear such endorsement; any alteration or interlineation shall also be initialled by the person who prepared such document: Provided, however, that this regulation shall not affect the rights and privileges of any attorney who was admitted and/or enrolled before the 1st September, 1938: Provided further that this regulation shall not prevent any attorney, notary or conveyancer in the employ of the State, from preparing in the course of his employment, any document herein mentioned which is required for the performance of any function performed in the department of office in which he is employed.Lodgment and execution of deeds
45.
46.
When lodging documents required for registering the transactions referred to in section five of the Act, there shall be produced such additional copies as shall be required for transmission to the other Deeds Registries affected. The additional copies shall be transmitted by the Registrar effecting registration to the other Registries.47.
No cession of the balance due under any bond shall be registered until the amount paid in reduction thereof shall have been noted, nor may any bond, part of the capital amount of which has been repaid be substituted under the provisions of sections forty-five and fifty-seven of the Act until the part payment shall have been noted.48.
If a collateral bond or surety bond is lodged for execution in a Registry other than that in which the principal bond is registered, a copy of such principal bond certified by the Registrar or the conveyancer lodging the collateral bond or surety bond, shall be lodged for filing with the registry duplicate of the collateral bond or surety bond. In the event of such collateral bond or surety bond being required to be executed simultaneously with the principal bond, a copy of the principal bond lodged with a Registrar shall be certified by him for filing as aforesaid and he shall advise the Registrar with whom the collateral bond or surety bond is lodged of the execution of the principal bond and such advice shall disclose any material amendments which may have been made in the principal bond since the issue of the copy aforesaid: Provided that in either case a copy need not be lodged for filing if such collateral bond or surety bond is drawn substantially in accordance with the form provided in the schedule of forms annexed to these regulations.49.
50.
51.
52.
53.
No deed conferring title to immovable property registered in the Deeds Registries at Cape Town, King William’s Town, Kimberley or Vryburg, or mortgage bond thereon shall be executed by virtue of a certified copy of a deed of grant or certificate of ownership issued by the Surveyor-General of the Province of the Cape of Good Hope, nor shall any other deed or document be registered in respect thereof until there has been lodged with the Registrar a certificate given by a conveyancer that he has searched the register of transfers and that it contains no record of a transfer of the land concerned by the persons named in such grant or certificate.54.
55.
Where in the circumstances provided in subsection (1)(b)(ii) of section fourteen of the Act transfer direct to a purchaser is lodged, such deed of transfer shall not be executed unless proof of the value of the immovable property being dealt with is furnished by means ot a written valuation by a sworn appraiser.56.
Where transfer is lodged in the circumstances provided in sub-section (1) of section thirty of the Act such transfer shall not be executed unless proof that the land awarded on partition to the owner of any share subject to a fideicommissum is an equivalent of that share, is furnished by means of the written report of a sworn appraiser or of an impartial person approved by the magistrate of the district in which the property is situate.57.
Where a note of expropriation is to be made in terms of sub-section (6)(a) of section thirty-one of the Act, such note shall not be made unless a certificate has been furnished to the Registrar by the expropriating authority describing the land, giving the name, number and administrative district, and setting out the full names of the registered owner and the number and date of the title.58.
In the event of any deed of transfer or any mortgage bond either by or in favour of any bank, company, church, association, society, or other body or institution or of any trustees or other officers thereof, being lodged for execution or registration in a Deeds Registry, or of any consent to the performance of any act on behalf of any one or other of them being lodged in such Registry there shall be produced for record purposes a certified copy of or a relevent extract from the deed of constitution or regulations of such body or other institution and of such further evidence as may be necessary to prove that the transaction is within the scope of its constitution or regulations.59.
Any person making application to a Registrar for a consolidated title shall, if the diagram of the land in respect of which such application is made does not contain a description of the several pieces of land comprised therein corresponding so far as may be material for purposes of identification with that contained in the existing title deeds, cause to be lodged with his application a certificate containing such description from the Surveyor General who approved the diagram.60.
61.
62.
In the circumstances mentioned in section seventy-six of the Act, the title deeds of the land affected shall be endorsed as to the nature of the praedial servitude created in a deed of transfer. Should, however, the description of the servitude be of such lengthy or complicated nature as to render an effective reference thereto or a transcription thereof impracticable by endorsement, an extract thereof certified by the conveyancer executing the deed of transfer shall be lodged for annexure by the Registrar to the originals and office duplicates of the deeds affected and a suitable reference to such extract shall be made by the Registrar upon such deeds.63.
64.
No transfer under the provisions of section thirty-three of the Act, shall be executed in the Deeds Registries at Cape Town, King William’s Town, Vryburg or Kimberley, until a conveyancer has lodged a certificate, signed on the day of the lodgment of the deed and confirmed in case of any relodgment thereof, that he has searched the register of transfers and that it contains no record of a transfer of the land concerned by the person from whom it is proposed to be alienated.Powers and certified copies thereof
65.
Copies of deeds and documents
66.
Copies of deeds conferring title to land or to any interest therein and copies of mortgage or notarial bonds required for information only, shall be issued on the application of any person and the words “Issued for information only ” shall be written or stamped on the face of every copy so issued.67.
Where copies of deeds conferring title to land or to any interest therein and copies of mortgage or notarial bonds are required for judicial purposes, they shall be issued on a written application signed by an attorney of the court or an enrolled law or admitted agent, and the words “Issued for judicial purposes only” shall be written or stamped on the face of every copy so issued.68.
69.
When the original of a notarial bond which has been registered at two or more Deeds Registries has been lost or destroyed the registered holder thereof or his duly authorized agent may elect to apply for a certified copy thereof under the provisions of the preceding regulation to the Registrar in charge of any of such Registries, but before issuing any such copy the Registrar to whom application has been made shall require the production of certificate from the Registrar of every other Deeds Registry in which such bond was registrable stating that no objection exists to the issue of such copy to the applicant and containing full particulars of all endorsements of registration and of any cessions or other transactions which may have been registered in respect of such bond in such other Deeds Registry, and shall further, when issuing any such copy, forthwith notify the fact of such issue to such other Registrar.70.
If a certified copy of any document not specified in sub-regulation (1) of regulation 68 is required by any person, such person may obtain the same upon application and within such period as circumstances permit.Miscellaneous
71.
Business with the Deeds Registry should be conducted in person or through an agent and not by correspondence.72.
73.
74.
When any lease or licence is tendered for registration under the provisions of the State Land Disposal Act, 1961, or any lease under the provisions of the Land settlement Act, 1956, or any amendment thereof, it shall be sufficient if, in lieu of diagrams as required by subregulation (1) of regulation 73 there are annexed to the deeds so lodged compilation plans of the land dealt with certified by the Surveyor-General.75.
When it is sought to register the cancellation of a mynpacht brief, which has been lawfully cancelled, it shall not be necessary to produce the mynpacht brief to the Registrar of Deeds, who on the production of the lawful authority for such cancellation, shall make the necessary notes in his registers in reference thereto and on the duplicate original title deed of the land against which the mynpacht has been registered. In such cases it shall also be unnecessary to produce any mortgage bond over the mynpacht and the Registrar shall note in the Personal Register that the title to the mortgaged property has been cancelled.76.
The holder of a real right mentioned in sub-section (1) of section sixty-four of the Act may transfer the whole thereof (if transferable), without first obtaining a certificate as mentioned in the said section.77.
When a Registrar effects registration of any change in the name of a person or partnership by virtue of the authority vested in him by section ninety-three of the Act he shall, if there is evidence indicating that the name of the applicant appears in any deed, document, or power of attorney mentioned in such section registered in another Registry, notify the Registrar in charge thereof of such registration.78.
The endorsement on a bond prescribed by section fifty-nine of the Act shall disclose what portion of the mortgaged property has been sold.79.
Returns of deeds registered where required shall be issued to the proper Government officer by each Registrar at such time and upon such form as shall be mutually agreed upon between such officer and the Registrar concerned.79bis.
Where any act of registration affects a diagram it shall be the duty of the Registrar to notify the Surveyor-General concerned.Information
80.
Binding of records
81.
Forms and tariffs
82.
The certificates of title to be issued by a Registrar under the Act, and the further deeds or documents prescribed thereunder or under these regulations, shall be prepared substantially in the forms provided in the schedule of forms annexed to these regulations.83.
Except as otherwise provided in any law—84.
The fees of office to be charged in respect of any act, matter, or thing required, or permitted, to be done in or in relation to a Deeds Registry shall be those specified in the schedule of fees of office to these regulations.85.
86.
Except as otherwise provided in any law, the fees of office specified in the schedule of fees of office to these regulations and the fees and charges specified in the Tariff of Fees and Charges appended to these regulations, in so far as they are applicable, shall apply mutatis mutandis to the office of the Rand Townships Registrar in respect or matters connected with stands or lots in townships until a freehold title has been obtained therefor under the Townships Amendment Act, 1908 (Transvaal) or the Conversion of Leasehold to Freehold Act, 1952, or any amendments thereof.History of this document
29 February 2024 amendment not yet applied
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01 May 1973 amendment not yet applied
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01 November 1969 amendment not yet applied
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27 July 1969 amendment not yet applied
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15 September 1964 amendment not yet applied
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27 May 1963 this version
Amended by
Registration of Deeds Regulations: Amendment
01 May 1963
Commenced