Avoid uncertainty.  Don’t be vague.

To describe the property being bought and sold, follow the full description according to the seller’s title deed.

A useful way to make sure you have described the property correctly is to ask the agent for the deeds registry search result.  The agent may have this for you.   In looking for this information, it is simple also to search for an “automated valuation” of the property which gives you information of recent sale prices in the area.

For example:

  • (for erven) the description should be not, for example “11 Church Street, Claremont”, but erf 1234 Cape Town.   Why should this be accurate?​
  • Certainly as a seller you would not want to sell not an address but exactly what is reflected in your title deed and nothing else!  If your boundary boundary wall or fence is not exactly on the boundary of the erf, you don’t want to have to correct this.
  • As the buyer, if such a problem exists, you would want to find this out in your due diligence process  when you check the boundaries.   What the seller can sell you is what he owns according to his title deed.
  • For sectional title descriptions, don’t record the property as “flat number 3 Mountain View, with parking bay,”  but (this should come out of the title deed of the seller)  unit 103 in the sectional title scheme Mountain View, SS 1234/2005 with exclusive use area P13.  (Obviously, these descriptions are just examples!)
  • For farms, use the full formal description; so not “the Farm Pretty View, Stellenbosch”, but the full wording from the title deed, such as “portion 12 of the Farm xxx, No 345, Stellenbosch”.

Add the area of the property exactly according to the title deed. (for example 1 345 square metres) if both parties are sure it is correct.

The buyer must investigate the boundaries and extent of the property as part of the due diligence.  (See the discussion under that heading in this section.)

There are search facilities available which will confirm the propert description and help with the purchaser’s due diligence.   (see separate section on due diligence).  You will need to register for an account to do these searches or contact us to help you buy the information online.

The search facility we use is http://www.windeedsearch.co.za