Conveyancing Attorneys in South Africa: When and How to Choose

Key takeaways

• An attorney is not automatically a conveyancer; verify the conveyancing enrolment of the person responsible for the reserved work.
• Pre-signing contract advice and post-signing registration work are different scopes.
• A transaction can involve separate transferring, bond-registration and bond-cancellation firms because the underlying instructions differ.
• Confirm who appointed each practice and what the sale agreement, lender or bondholder instruction authorises.

1. Confirm that the work legally needs a conveyancer

The Legal Practice Act defines a conveyancer as a practising attorney admitted and enrolled to practise as a conveyancer. It also prevents a person from performing a service reserved by another law for a conveyancer unless that person is practising in that capacity. The Deeds Registries Act then reserves preparation of core registrable deeds and documents to conveyancers and makes a signing conveyancer responsible, to the prescribed extent, for certified facts.

Ask for the full name of the individual responsible for preparing or certifying the registrable documents and confirm the person's enrolment. The conveyancing glossary owns the short definition; this guide owns the selection decision.

Not every property question is already a registration instruction. Before signature, the immediate need may be independent review of the agreement, conditions, occupation, finance, authority or tax treatment. Define the present task first.

2. Separate the five common scopes

Use the transaction documents and actual instruction to distinguish these roles:

Separate firms may handle transfer, new-bond registration and existing-bond cancellation because different contractual, lender and bondholder instructions may control those workstreams. The transferring-attorney label should still be tested against the actual instruction.

If you need the full agreement-to-registration sequence, use the property-transfer process guide. This page does not reproduce that process.

3. Act before signature when the terms are the risk

Registration work cannot retroactively repair every bargain. Obtain pre-signing advice where the property, party, price, finance, occupation, condition, disclosure, compliance, possession, penalty, tax or authority terms are unclear.

Escalate before signature when:

• the seller is a deceased estate, trust, company, close corporation or person acting under authority;
• the buyer depends on finance, a sale of another property or another suspensive condition;
• occupation, occupational rent, possession or risk will change before registration;
• alterations, subdivisions, sectional-title records, servitudes or land-use questions appear;
• the transaction may be VAT-rated, exempt or structured differently from an ordinary transfer-duty acquisition;
• a deposit or other money must be paid before the receiving practice and account are verified; or
• a property practitioner says a particular attorney must be used without identifying the contractual or legal basis.

Section 58 of the Property Practitioners Act prohibits a property practitioner from entering an arrangement that obliges or encourages a consumer to use a particular service provider, including an attorney, for a transaction caused by that property practitioner. This safeguard does not rewrite the sale agreement, lender instruction or bondholder mandate. Ask for the document that identifies the appointment and obtain transaction-specific advice if the instruction is disputed.

4. Map who appointed each practice

Create one instruction map before comparing firms:

• transferring practice, responsible conveyancer and instruction source;
• buyer's lender and bond-registration practice, if financed;
• seller's bondholder and cancellation practice, if a bond exists;
• independent pre-signing or specialist adviser, if used;
• estate agent or property practitioner and their limited communication role; and
• the person authorised to approve changes, release information and receive status updates for each party.

Ask whom each practice represents, which work it performs and when separate advice is appropriate. Confirm in writing if one practice is doing more than one role.

The property-transfer service page owns service intent, while the conveyancing hub provides approved topic orientation. Neither replaces a written engagement for the actual transaction.

5. Verify the individual and the practice

The Legal Practice Council must keep a public roll of practising and non-practising legal practitioners, including conveyancer enrolment, and update it monthly. Search the named individual, not only the trading name. If the result is unclear, confirm it with the Council before entrusting documents or money.

Check:

1. the responsible person's full name and conveyancer enrolment;
2. current practising status and any visible suspension or status concern;
3. the legal name, physical address and independently sourced telephone details of the practice;
4. who will supervise the file and who may communicate payment details;
5. whether the practice will receive or hold money; and
6. the current Fidelity Fund certificate position where the Legal Practice Act requires one.

Section 84 requires specified attorneys practising for their own account, in partnership or as directors of incorporated practices to hold a Fidelity Fund certificate and prohibits them or supervised staff from receiving or holding another person's funds or property without the required certificate. The LPC specifically encourages the public to verify the position. Do not treat a logo, website badge or forwarded PDF as conclusive; use the current LPC verification route.

The general lawyer-selection guide covers universal professional-selection controls. Add the conveyancing-specific checks in this article.

6. Test experience against this transaction

Years in practice do not show whether the team regularly handles this transaction type. Ask without requesting confidential client details.

Useful questions include:

• Which part of this transaction falls within your instruction?
• Who is the responsible conveyancer and who does the daily file work?
• Have you recently handled transfers involving this type of party, title or finance structure?
• Which risks are already visible from the agreement and title information?
• Which decisions require tax, estate, company, trust, land-use or litigation input outside the quote?
• What information is needed from each party, lender, municipality, body corporate or homeowners' association?
• What event will trigger the next status update, and how are delays or missing documents escalated?

Use the lawyer directory to compare individual professional fit or the law-firm directory where the matter needs team capacity. Then perform the independent verification above.

7. Demand a written scope and an itemised estimate

A useful engagement record identifies the client, represented party, responsible conveyancer, exact work, exclusions, charging basis, VAT treatment, disbursements, anticipated third-party amounts, payment timing, trust handling, termination terms and complaints route.

Do not compare only the bottom-line total. Ask the practice to separate, where applicable:

• professional fees for transfer, bond, cancellation, advice or additional work;
• VAT on taxable professional charges;
• Deeds Office and other registry charges;
• transfer duty or the claimed exemption or alternative tax treatment;
• municipal, body-corporate or homeowners'-association figures and certificates;
• electronic, identity-verification, postage or document charges;
• compliance-certificate or external professional costs; and
• amounts that are provisional, rate-dependent, time-dependent or outside the firm's control.

Transfer duty is not the conveyancer's professional fee. SARS requires conveyancers to register for the transfer-duty process and uses the TDC01 declaration and supporting information. Tax treatment and rates belong in the current transfer-duty guide; obtain advice on the actual acquisition date and structure.

Ask what happens if the price, lender, parties, conditions, occupation, tax treatment, title work or external requirements change. A low initial estimate with undefined exclusions is not necessarily the lower final cost.

8. Prepare for FICA and authority checks

Attorneys, including conveyancers practising for their own account, and qualifying legal-practice entities are accountable institutions under the Financial Intelligence Centre framework. Their risk-management programme must cover customer due diligence, records, reporting and a risk-based approach.

Expect requests that may cover identity, address, tax numbers, marital status, entity registration, representatives, authority, beneficial ownership, bank-account proof and source of funds. The exact request is not a universal checklist: it depends on the client, party, transaction, payment route and assessed risk. A third-party payment, unusual ownership chain or changed bank account can require more information.

Use the FICA document checklist to organise the common document categories, but follow the appointed practice's verified request. Send sensitive records only through the practice's confirmed channel and ask how they will be stored and shared.

9. Treat every payment as a separate verification event

Conveyancing transactions are exposed to business-email-compromise fraud because payment instructions can be intercepted and replaced. The Law Society of South Africa advises verifying that the account belongs to the firm and contacting the person handling the matter if the details are uncertain.

Before paying:

1. verify the practice and responsible person independently;
2. obtain the account details through the agreed secure channel;
3. call a previously verified number, not a number supplied only in the payment-change message;
4. confirm the account name, bank, number, reference and amount;
5. do not rely on an email saying the account changed; and
6. preserve the instruction, verification record and proof of payment.

If details change, stop. Reverify through trusted contact information and require the practice to explain its change-control process. If a suspicious or wrong payment may have occurred, contact the bank and verified practice immediately and obtain urgent professional help. Do not wait for an email investigation before attempting to contain the transfer.

10. Agree on a transaction-status record

Ask for updates tied to events, not optimistic completion dates. The status record should distinguish items controlled by the parties or practice from external dependencies such as a lender, bondholder, municipality, managing agent, body corporate, homeowners' association, SARS or the Deeds Office.

Track at least:

• instruction received and conflict or client checks completed;
• signed agreement and material conditions identified;
• party, authority, FICA and funding information outstanding or accepted;
• deposit and guarantee position;
• bond and cancellation instructions;
• tax declaration and receipt or exemption position;
• municipal, levy and other clearance requirements;
• documents signed and conditions ready for lodgement;
• lodgement, examination, preparation and registration status; and
• post-registration accounting, document and handover steps.

Government's deeds-registry service allows record searches and copy requests. A search does not replace transaction advice or prove that a pending transfer will register.

Final selection checklist

• The immediate task is classified as pre-signing advice, transfer, bond registration, bond cancellation or specialist work.
• The signed agreement, lender and bondholder instructions are mapped.
• The responsible individual's conveyancer enrolment and practising status are verified.
• The practice identity and trusted contact details are independently confirmed.
• The current Fidelity Fund certificate position has been checked where required.
• The written scope identifies client, represented party, work, exclusions and responsible person.
• Professional fees are separated from tax, registry and other third-party amounts.
• The team has relevant experience and enough capacity for the actual transaction.
• FICA, authority, beneficial-ownership and source-of-funds requests have a secure route.
• Every material payment will receive independent bank-detail verification.
• Status updates are tied to events and external dependencies rather than promises.
• The property-transfer checklist is being used for the reusable transaction record.

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