Partnership acquiring land

Although in some respects, certain Acts recognise or regard a partnership as a separate persona, distinct from its members, there is no such recognition in Section 24(bis) or Regulation 34 of the Deeds Registries Act, 47 of 1937. Regulations 24(1) and (4) when read with Section 17(2), require the names of all partners to be stated in deeds, powers of attorney and all other documents. Section 24(bis)(2) provides for the endorsement of the title deed on dissolution of the partnership to indicate that such land vests in the individual partners. In terms of the common law, a partnership is also not regarded as a separate legal entity, distinct from the individuals who constitute the partnership.

It is therefore evident that practitioners and examiners alike must take note that whenever agricultural land is transferred to a partnership, the Registrar will regard such a transfer as a vesting of individual shares in the land, not already held by any person, and therefore a contravention of the Subdivision of Agricultural Land Act 70 of 1970. Such a transfer must therefore be accompanied by the consent of the Minister of Agriculture or proof that the land in question is not agricultural land (see in this regard CRC 6 of 2002).

P J Weideman
Deeds Registry
Bloemfontein

Republished with permission from SA Deeds Journal