The South African real estate community is holding its collective breath to see whether the government will act to halt a public servant's strike that has already lead to the closure of two deeds offices. If government does not act in time the property industry stands to lose millions through the closures.

Jeanne van Jaarsveldt, Marketing and Finance Director of RE/MAX of Southern Africa, called on the South African government to act soon to prevent massive damage to the country's economy. RE/MAX International is the world largest real estate organisation and the Southern African region is one of more than 65 around the world.

"It is quite clear that the situation is already dire and that the property sector, including all estate agents, home buyers and sellers, as well as people in the banking and legal sectors, are going to have to deal with the consequences if government does not act soon."

The ongoing public servants strike has already led to the closure of the Johannesburg and Pretoria deeds offices.

In Johannesburg, according to Glenn Norton, owner of the RE/MAX Masters franchise, the Department of Public Works had apparently failed to pay rent and also did not renew the lease of the office.

"This is a shocking state of affairs. This is going to cost the country millions. We approached the deeds office who said that, apart from the closure, many important documents can go missing if computer systems are not up and running," Norton said.

Van Jaarsveldt added that the only way to prevent a crippling effect on the property industry, which is already experiencing a slow-down due to six consecutive interest rate hikes and more stringent regulations imposed by the National Credit Act, was for government to step in.

"The situation is going to impact on everyone on the country. It is imperative that further closures of deeds offices around the country are prevented and that the offices in Johannesburg and Pretoria are up and running as soon as possible.

"Naturally RE/MAX of Southern Africa will do everything possible to assist government in addressing the situation. We have already appointed a team to look at ways to ensure that deeds registration can continue as normally as possible."

Readers' Comments
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What are they striking for now? They had a strike a couple of months ago for salary increases. What the hell? These guys strike more than they work. - Leon Puth

The bottom line remains, no matter which department, as long as there is no accountability in this country, things are going to get a lot worse, until it's too late. Remedie, find the culprit in the department responsible for paying deeds office rents, get lawyers, banks, buyers and sellers to institute a class action for damages against Mr/s Incompetence, and when this individual's assets has been taken to pay for costs, and hung on a flagpole for others to see, funny how quickly other departments will fix things.

The next dept should be Home Affairs and the Police, then Health and Roadworks, Education etc. and ending with the politicians. - Andre Du Plessis

I understood that the real reason for the non-negotiation of the lease was because the landlord is not a BEE compliant company. Why didn't the Department think about that BEFORE the lease expired and try to reach a settlement with the landlord - or alternatively look for other premises earlier - before the situation deteriorated to such an extent that the Deeds Office was locked out, and the matter taken to Court.

Now we have the absolute ghastly situation where we not only won't be able to register matters timeously - and thus millions of rands will be lost (as also I am sure numerous documents) - but we as conveyancers and also the public will be obliged to travel and walk in that part of Johannesburg - which to put it mildly, is not up to security standards.

There are only a limited amount of parking spaces in the relevant building (the old Sanlam Centre) and consequently the majority of conveyancers will be obliged to park elsewhere and walk to the building hugging our briefcases, cell phones, bags etc. Is the Department going to compensate us if our belongings are stolen, if we are attacked and injured etc. (never mind being killed!). A great number of conveyancers - including me - are women and already there is fear of walking in such an unsafe environment. - Ester Resnik

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