Just when you thought that buying property was going to be a little cheaper following recent adjustments to transfer duties, deeds office registration fees have been increased by an average of 45 percent.
In the latest Budget it was announced that transfer duty was reduced from the beginning of next month to encourage home ownership, especially for low income earners.
But from the beginning of next month, amendments to regulations under the Deeds Registries Act come into effect.
You may not be aware that you have to pay the Deeds Office a fee when you buy property and when you have a bond registered, because usually these fees are collected by attorneys who pay it over to the Deeds Office on your behalf.
Deeds Office registration fees were introduced in 1994 and have been steadily increasing since then, says David Warmback, a partner at Durban-based attorney firm, Shepstone and Wylie.
The fees are based on a sliding scale depending on the purchase price of the property or the amount of the mortgage bond being registered over that property.
The scales will be adjusted on April 1 and a new tier added to allow for a new set of fees for properties and bonds of more than R500 000.
You will pay R290 for a transfer over R500 000, which is a 75 percent increase on the previous fee of R165.
Currently you do not pay registration fees if you buy a property costing less than R18 000, but from the beginning of April you will pay R45 for any property under R60 000.
Abolishing this exemption does not follow the trend announced in the Budget to encourage low income earners to afford homes, Warmback says.
To transfer a property of R160 000, you would currently pay R130, but this goes up by 46 percent to R190 next month.
The scales for bond registration fees are similar to the existing ones, but the fees increase from R100 to R145 for bonds up to R150 000; from R130 to R190 for bonds between R150 000 and R300 000 and from R185 to R250 for bonds between R300 000 and R500 000.
A new level has also been introduced for registering bonds over R500 000 and in this instance you will be charged R290 or 57 percent more than you would pay at present.