Deeds office faces days out on streets

deeds office faces days out on streets

pretoria - the deeds office in johannesburg will be booted out of its 2 rissik street offices on november 27. the eviction could result in disruptions to property transfers in the country's business capital, with catastrophic consequences for the property industry.

apexhi properties, the owner of the building, was granted the eviction order in the johannesburg high court this week.

this followed an urgent application by the public works department after apexhi locked the deeds office out of their premises on november 1, one month after the lease for the space had expired.

the deeds office got a locksmith to reopen the building.

david rice, apexhi's chief executive, said yesterday the department admitted the lease had expired, but asked the court to give it an eight-month extension to june next year, to vacate the premises.

apexhi opposed the application and applied for an eviction order, which the high court granted with costs.

lucky mochalibane, the spokesperson for the department, could not comment on the high court judgment and eviction order.

rice said that the deeds office's 10-year lease expired at the end of september.

the department had called for tenders and apexhi tendered a five-year lease in june.

despite many attempts to finalise the lease, there was no written communication from the department and the tender period elapsed.

rice said apexhi had warned the department about the expiry of the lease and that the company was not prepared to do month-to-month leases.

he said the department finally advised the company that it would accept a two-year lease, which apexhi rejected. the firm then told the deeds office to vacate the premises.

gordon leith of edelstein-bosman attorneys said if the deeds office was temporarily closed, the move would cause major disruptions and "shut down the property industry in johannesburg".

"you can't register any properties. this will cause massive delays and impact on the cash flow of attorneys,'' said leith.

''it will have a major impact on banks because they will have so much money sitting in the pipeline with properties not being registered, while estate agents will not get their commissions," he said.

mike pinnock of tonkin clacey attorneys said the damage to the public by the deeds office not functioning for several weeks or months would "run into hundreds of thousands if not millions of rands".

eskel jawitz, the chairman of the national association of real estate agencies, said the temporary closure of the deeds office would be "catastrophic for residential property in johannesburg".

jawitz said the closure would result in delays in sellers being paid, and buyers paying occupational rental for longer than they would have liked.