Johannesburg behind in issuing clearance certificates

While the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) takes up to eight months to issue clearance certificates required to conclude property transactions, Mogale City (Krugersdorp) consistently managed to issue them in under two weeks.

Fred Steffers, managing director of Apex Property Brokers said that he and many of his fellow estate agents had suffered substantial losses because of their inability to conclude sales transactions for properties in Johannesburg (which includes Florida and Roodepoort).

“We have had instances where it has taken upwards of eight months to get a clearance certificate from CoJ, which means that the property in the Johannesburg metro – which includes Florida and Roodepoort – cannot be transferred from the buyer to the seller in the deeds office.

“This is largely due to the incompetence of staff at the Braamfontein and other service centres where staff are trained and motivated inadequately to deal with queries.

“In contrast, Krugersdorp often manages to issue certificates within a matter of days,” Steffers said.

“The Mogale City council clearly is going out of its way to ensure that they deliver a quality service to its ratepayers.”

David Letsie, a member of the Mogale City Mayoral Committee (MMC) said he was proud of the high level of service his council managed to deliver.

“We know and understand how important it is to issue clearance certificates in the shortest possible time because buyers, sellers and estate agents depend on us to conclude their transactions.”

He said staff at the city’s service centre were highly trained to ensure that they perform their jobs optimally and to meet the needs of consumers.

Steffers said the experience he and other estate agents had at the CoJ offices was the exact opposite of their experience at Mogale City.

“After standing in lengthy queues for hours, hard-pressed consumers are given a reference number. Often the queries are logged incorrectly and absolutely nothing happens,” he said.

Steffers said the West Rand was becoming increasingly popular with home buyers because of the excellent value for money it offered.

“While the property market in most of the country is in a slump, we are experiencing substantial growth thanks to an influx of ‘economic refugees’ from Johannesburg, Tshwane and elsewhere in Gauteng.

As a rule of thumb rates and taxes are considerably lower than in Johannesburg – sometimes by as much as one third.”

“Krugersdorp and the West Rand in general have a great deal to offer newcomers, ranging from a world-class infrastructure to great business and employment opportunities. There is no question that property prices are considerably lower than in Johannesburg.”

For more information please contact Fred Steffers on 083 268 6779 or visit the Apex Property Brokers website at www.apexpropertybrokers.co.za.