Pretoria Registrar’s Circular No. 25 of 2015
Procedure to deal with lost deeds
Purpose
1. To outline the procedure on how to deal with lost deeds in the office and to centralize the functions relating thereto.
Procedure
2. The relevant Conveyancer must consult with the Assistant Registrar in charge of the DOTS section and complete the prescribed form in full.
The information regarding the last tracking point of the lost deeds will be verified on the system and the said Assistant Registrar will then forward a request to search for the deeds to the section where the deeds were last scanned.
The said section will be given a period of two working days within which to attend to the query. Thereafter the relevant sections have to provide the Assistant of Dots with Written confirmation that the deeds were searched for and could not be found/Were found.
3. Deeds referred back to the deeds office for the correction of after registration mistakes will be dealt with in a similar manner. The official who acknowledged receipt of the deeds will have to provide written confirmation that the deeds got lost and that a proper search was conducted.
4. On the third working day after the query was lodged, the Conveyancer may approach the Assistant Registrar for the Results of the search.
If the deeds are found, the Conveyancer may approach the Deputy Registrar to have the deeds put forward. If the deeds are still not found after a thorough search, the Assistant Registrar of Dots will reject the barcodes manually from the system and a letter to the effect that the deeds were searched for, and could not be found, will be issued.
5. The Conveyancer will then have to redraw the deeds de novo. The Conveyancer may also approach the Registrar of Deeds for the issuing a copy, free of charge, of the old titles involved with the missing deeds.
6. Please take note that no queries should be lodged regarding deeds already scanned into prep or deeds scanned out of at delivery. As such deeds are considered to be the responsibility of the Conveyancers in that they are deemed to be in their possession.
7. Registrar’s Circular 2/2015 is hereby withdrawn.
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