Pretoria Registrar's Circular 02/2015

1.Purpose
To outline the procedure on how to deal with lost deeds in the office and to centralise the functions relating thereto.

2. Procedure

1. 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.


2. On the third working day after the query is 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.


3. 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.


4. 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.

Pretoria Registrar's Circular 2 of 2015