You won the auction.
Here is what happens next.

The sequence at a glance

Each auction’s conditions of sale set the exact periods, but the order of events is the same on almost every South African property auction:

On the day: signing and paying

The Consumer Protection Act treats a sale by auction as complete when the auctioneer announces its completion by the fall of the hammer, or in another customary way. From that moment the conditions of sale govern the deal. (Everything before that point is on the buying on auction page.)

Sign the conditions of sale

They record the price, deposit, commission, payment periods, occupation, risk and what happens on default. Read them before the auction; there is no negotiating them afterwards. The Alienation of Land Act’s general rule that a sale of land must be in a signed written deed does not apply to a sale of land by public auction (section 3(1)), so refusing to sign is not a safe way out of a purchase you regret. Have your doubts before you raise your hand.

Pay the deposit

The purchaser is liable on the day for the deposit, and, where the conditions of sale provide for it, for the buyer’s commission as they set out. The percentages differ between auctions and between property and movables, and each auction’s conditions of sale set them; ask us before you register. Check whether commission is quoted with or without VAT. The buyer’s premium guide explains how it works.

Pay only into the account named in the signed conditions of sale. Property deposits attract payment-diversion fraud, so treat any email saying banking details have changed as suspect and confirm by phone, on a number you already know, before paying.

Bidding for someone else

If you bid for another person, a company or a trust, you will have lodged your written authority when you registered (see buying on auction). Make sure the principal’s name and address are recorded when you sign. Section 16 of the Transfer Duty Act requires an agent to disclose the principal’s name and address on the day the auctioneer accepts the bid. If you do not, you are presumed to have bought for yourself, which can mean transfer duty twice.

If the sale is subject to confirmation

Where bidding reaches the reserve, the property is sold when the hammer falls. Two situations work differently:

• Bidding stopped below the reserve. The property is not sold on the day. The seller may still consider the highest bid as a post-auction offer, and you may be asked to sign it and hold it open for a stated period while the seller decides.
• The seller needs a further approval. An executor, trustee, liquidator or business rescue practitioner may sell subject to a consent they still have to obtain. Where that applies, the conditions of sale say so and give the period.

Read the offer before you sign it. Post-auction offers are usually expressed to stay open for a stated period, so plan on being held to yours for that time and do not commit the same money elsewhere until you hear. Whether a signed offer can be withdrawn early is a question for an attorney. Once the seller accepts, the payment periods usually run from that date; the conditions of sale say which. They also say what happens to your deposit and commission if the seller does not confirm, so check that clause before you sign. The insolvent estate and liquidation auctions guide explains how those sellers work.

Securing the balance: guarantees or cash

The deposit is only part of the price. The balance has to be secured within the period in the conditions of sale, commonly a matter of weeks, and secured means one of two things.

With a bond: a bank guarantee

Your bank approves the bond, instructs its attorney to register it, and issues a guarantee to pay the balance to the seller when transfer registers. Delivering that guarantee to the transferring conveyancer on time is what satisfies the condition. Banks need time to value the property, so start the day you win, or better, before you bid. The guide to buying on auction with a bond covers pre-approval.

Unless the conditions of sale make the sale subject to finance, a declined bond application does not cancel the sale. You still owe the balance.

With cash: the conveyancer’s trust account

Cash buyers pay the balance into the transferring conveyancer’s trust account, where it waits until registration. Under section 86(4) and (5) of the Legal Practice Act, the conveyancer’s practice may, on your instruction, invest it in a separate interest-bearing account, with the interest paid to you less 5% that goes to the Legal Practitioners’ Fidelity Fund. Give the instruction in writing when you pay.

If you cannot pay on time

This is the most expensive mistake after an auction. Conditions of sale typically let the seller cancel, keep the deposit or claim damages, resell, and hold the defaulting buyer liable for any shortfall and the resale costs. The Conventional Penalties Act lets a court reduce a penalty out of proportion to the seller’s actual prejudice (section 3), but that is a court case, not a plan. If a delay is coming, say so early and get any extension in writing before the deadline. If cancellation is threatened, see an attorney.

The conveyancer, FICA and transfer duty

The transferring conveyancer prepares the transfer and lodges it at the Deeds Office. On an auction sale the conditions of sale normally name the firm, usually the seller’s choice. On a bonded purchase your bank’s attorney registers the new bond and the seller’s bank’s attorney cancels any existing one, and the documents are lodged together so everything registers on the same day.

What the conveyancer will ask you for

• FICA documents, again. Conveyancing attorneys are accountable institutions in their own right under Schedule 1 to the Financial Intelligence Centre Act, so what you gave us to register as a bidder does not cover them.
• Your marital status (and antenuptial contract details, if any), or for a company or trust, a resolution and its registration documents.
• Your signature on the transfer documents and the transfer duty declaration, and payment of duty and transfer costs against a pro forma account.

Transfer duty

Transfer duty is a SARS tax on acquiring property, and the purchaser is liable for it. SARS treats the date of acquisition as the day the last party signs the agreement, which on an auction sale is ordinarily auction day. Where the seller accepts or signs later, it is that later date. Duty is due within six months of that date, after which interest runs at 10% a year for each completed month (SARS Transfer Duty Guide). In practice the conveyancer collects it much sooner, because the Deeds Office will not register a transfer without SARS’s transfer duty receipt.

On SARS’s current rates (in force from 1 April 2025, unchanged from 1 April 2026) there is no duty on the first R1,210,000. A dutiable value of R1,500,000 attracts R8,700; R2,000,000 attracts R33,786. Two auction details matter here. SARS’s guide says commission paid by the purchaser for the acquisition is added to the value for duty, and so is any seller’s debt you agree to settle, such as arrear rates. And where the seller is a VAT vendor selling in the course of its business, the sale carries VAT instead of transfer duty, so check whether the price includes VAT. The transfer duty guide has the full table.

Clearance certificates: rates, levies and compliance

Rates clearance

Section 118 of the Municipal Systems Act stops the registrar from registering a transfer without a municipal certificate confirming that rates, service fees and other municipal charges for the two years before the application have been paid. The certificate is valid for 60 days (Local Government Laws Amendment Act, section 19). Municipal clearance can hold up the whole process.

Ordinarily that debt is the seller’s. But some auction conditions of sale make the purchaser liable for arrear rates, taxes or levies needed to obtain clearance, which on a neglected property can be a large sum on top of the price. Find that clause before you bid.

On a sale by the trustee of an insolvent estate, section 118 is subject to section 89 of the Insolvency Act. Rates for up to two years before sequestration, and from then until transfer, are paid from the proceeds, and once the trustee has paid them, a law that blocks transfer until rates are paid does not stop it. Other municipal charges follow the conditions of sale (see the insolvent estate guide).

What a municipality cannot do is use section 118(3) to recover the previous owner’s debt from you after transfer: in Jordaan v City of Tshwane (2017) the Constitutional Court held that the charge it creates does not survive transfer to a new owner.

Levy clearance

For a sectional title unit, the Sectional Titles Act requires a conveyancer’s certificate that the body corporate has confirmed everything the seller owes it is paid, or provided for, before transfer can register. Where the title deed requires a homeowners’ association to consent to transfer, its clearance is needed too.

Compliance certificates

The Electrical Installation Regulations, 2009 say the user or lessor may not allow a change of ownership if the electrical certificate of compliance is older than two years. That puts the duty on the user or lessor, which on a sale is normally the seller. Depending on the property, other certificates may be needed:

• Electric fence. Under the Electrical Machinery Regulations, 2011, an electric fence system that predates those regulations needs a system certificate when the premises change ownership after 1 October 2012. The certificate is transferable, so a valid existing one carries over.
• Water (City of Cape Town). The City’s Water By-law requires the seller, before transfer, to submit an accredited plumber’s certificate on the water installation. Other municipalities have their own rules.
• Gas and beetle. A gas certificate where there is a fixed gas installation, and a beetle certificate where the conditions of sale or the lender call for one.

Who pays for inspections and repairs is set by the conditions of sale, and on some auction sales they put the cost on the purchaser, so find that clause before you bid.

Occupation, occupational rent and risk

When you get the keys

The conditions of sale set the occupation date. Often it is on registration; some sales allow earlier occupation by agreement. Conditions of sale usually provide for occupational rent (also called occupational interest): you pay the seller if you take occupation before registration, and the seller pays you if they stay on after it. Whether it is payable, the amount and the dates are whatever the conditions of sale or an occupation agreement say. Get it in writing, and do not start building work before registration without the seller’s written consent.

Risk and insurance

Check when risk passes. In many conditions of sale it passes to the purchaser on the date of sale or of confirmation, which can be months before you own the property. If the property is damaged after that date the loss is generally yours, so insure from the date risk passes, not from registration.

If someone is living there

Buying a property does not by itself remove the people in it. If a former owner or anyone else is living there without a right to, the Prevention of Illegal Eviction Act says no one may evict an unlawful occupier except on the authority of a court order. That takes time and legal costs, and changing the locks yourself is not an option. Ask before you bid whether the property is occupied, by whom, and whether vacant occupation is given. A tenant with a lease is different: existing leases are disclosed in the catalogue and the conditions of sale, and as a rule the buyer takes transfer subject to them. One statutory exception: a lease of ten years or more that is not registered against the title deed binds a buyer who did not know of it for no longer than ten years from when it was entered into (Formalities in respect of Leases of Land Act, section 1). The conditions of sale say whether a property is sold subject to a lease or free of it; if that matters to you, take it to an attorney before you bid.

Lodgement and registration at the Deeds Office

Once the guarantees, duty receipt and clearances are in and everyone has signed, the conveyancer lodges the transfer at the Deeds Office for the area, together with any bond registration and cancellation. Examiners check every document, and a deed with an error is rejected and has to be relodged. How long examination takes varies between Deeds Offices; the conveyancer can tell you the current turnaround at the office concerned.

Registration is the moment that matters. Under the Deeds Registries Act, section 16, ownership of land you buy passes only by a deed of transfer executed or attested by the registrar. On that day the guarantees pay out, the seller is paid, and you become the registered owner. Once the balance is secured, getting to this point typically takes two to three months, depending on the Deeds Office, the municipality and any bond cancellation (see property auctions).

After registration

• Open the municipal account in your name.
• Expect the conveyancer’s final statement, with a refund of anything held in trust that was not used.
• If you have a bond, the bank keeps the title deed. If not, ask the conveyancer for it once the Deeds Office releases it.

The costs of buying property on auction guide totals all of this up.

If you won a vehicle or other movable lot

Movables are simpler because nothing goes through the Deeds Office. As with property, the deposit is payable at the fall of the hammer, the buyer’s commission as that auction’s conditions of sale set out, and the balance within the period they set. Goods are released once payment has cleared. Ownership and risk pass as those conditions provide. Lots have to be collected by the stated deadline, and storage charges can apply after it.

VAT on the price follows the seller, because the VAT Act treats a sale through an agent as made by the principal (section 54(1)): it applies where the seller is a VAT vendor selling in the course of its business. Our commission generally carries VAT. The conditions of sale say whether prices are quoted with or without VAT.

For a vehicle, we coordinate the eNatis change of ownership. The new owner has to register the vehicle and obtain its licence within 21 days of the change of ownership, and the registering authority asks for a roadworthy certificate if the current one is older than 60 days (gov.za: register a motor vehicle). The guide to buying a vehicle on auction and our vehicle auctions page cover the rest.