Comment on certificates

In the article on Electrical Compliance Certificates - Certificate note in the latest Ghostdigest, the following is stated:

"The Deeds Office will not police this obligation. It will ask for proof that a certificate exists."

[My underlining]

This cannot be correct. The Deeds office has not, in any of the transfers that I have ever attended to, asked whether an Electrical Compliance Certificate for the property being transferred, actually exists. There is nothing in the Deeds Registries Act or the Sectional Titles Act, to the best of my knowledge, which refers anywhere to the Electrical Compliance Certificates.

This statement, i.e. that the Deeds Offices will request proof of the existence of an Electrical Compliance Certificate will create the wrong impression, especially among estate agents.

I point out that the banks, as one of their usual requirements, will insist that the bond registration attorneys obtain a (certified copy) of the Electrical Compliance Certificate from the transferring attorneys. [As the transferring attorney, I now insist that the bond registering attorneys pay my reasonable costs for providing a certified copy of the Electrical Compliance Certificate.]

Sieg Heiriss
S.K. Heiriss Inc.