Regulation board meeting

The annual Deeds Regulation Board meeting was held on 19 July 2006 at the Burgerspark Hotel in Pretoria.

A comprehensive agenda was discussed that will in certain instances necessitate amendments to the Deeds Registries Act and regulations promulgated in terms of this Act, and in other instances the Board has proposed amendments to the existing practice to bring it in line with the Act and or regulations.

The gist of the meeting was as follows:

Section 17(2)
Section 17(2) of the Act will be amended to bring it in line with the established practice of disclosing the full names and marital status of a person in all deeds and documents lodged for registration or execution.

Section 38
This section will be suitably amended to cater for the issuing of all real rights i.e. real rights of extension and exclusive use areas, to mention but a few.

In Chapter V of the Act, however, the Board decided to provide for the application of a lost bond in an instance where the office copy has also been lost.

Section 45(1), 45bis and 45bis (1A)
The Board was ad idem that these sections need not be amended to cater for real rights of extension and exclusive use areas. In future, the provisions of these sections must be applied to such rights. Such rights must be ceded by notarial cession.

Section 57
The Board held that the provisions of Section 57 cannot be applied unless the whole of the land mortgaged is substituted. In future, registrars must not permit the application of this section as provided for in the 1994 and 1995 conference resolutions. These resolutions will be revisited at the next conference.

Regulation 20(7) and 50(1)
Amendments will be effected to bring Resolution 50(1) in line with Regulation 20(7), in that only a will or testament must be certified as a true copy by the Master. All other documents issued by the State department, except diagrams, can be certified by a conveyancer or notary.

Regulation 44A
Regulation 44A will be reviewed in toto.

Regulation 84
The fee charged for applications in terms of Section 4(1)(b) will remain unchanged; however, should proof be submitted that the error in registration occurred due to a deeds office fault, an application can be made for a refund in the form of a credit note.

The fee charged for a copy of an antenuptual contract will remain at R30, 00.

The heading of Item 8 will be amended to refer to immovable property so as to cater for a fee to be charged on the retransfer of leaseholds.

General
The Act and regulations will also be revised in respect of all references to minerals, prospecting and mining rights.

Republished with permission from SA Deeds Journal