CITY OF JOHANNESBURG - COUNCIL RATES CLEARANCES AND DELAYS

For those of us who are less IT functional the simple reality is that, in terms of the conveyancing process, this change is going to cause some unwelcome delays, especially at a time of year when we are all looking to finalise matters for our clients.

As part of the transfer process Council is now unable to process applications for rates clearance figures, even though they may have been lodged a short while back. So this creates the first backlog.

The second concerning implication is that, in order to lodge in the Deeds office, we require a rates clearance certificate for all property matters under the City of Johannesburg scope. In many cases recently we have already paid the necessary amounts to Council to obtain such certificates which normally takes a day or two. Council is now, due to the system change and backlogs, not issuing certificates for periods of up to two weeks which is a huge headache.

Hopefully this change-over scenario will cease to have such an adverse effect shortly, but we cannot at this stage predict on Council's behalf exactly when that will be.

Yours in property

Snymans Inc