In my opinion:

A Conveyancer’s Diary: Wednesday 16th September 2009

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Afrideed

For deeds office searches, I used to use DeedSearch from Lexis Nexis (formerly Butterworths). Recently, the searches and in particular, ordering documents, had become expensive and the delivery of documents invariably delayed.

I tried the new system from Korbitec, called WinDeed. It needed to have software installed (on my already overloaded pc), the installation of the software had hassles and eventually, when I had “registered” by filling in their forms and faxing these off (unnecessary administrative burdens) and obtaining my password, etc, I was disappointed with the very outdated looking and “clunky” user interface of WinDeed. I used it only once, was charged R58.30 for this and when Korbitec’s accounts people thought I was not paying fast enough (R58.30!) [ I being under the impression that they would take the money per debit order as they do regularly each month] and sent me an “URGENT” demand type e mail, I put Windeed aside (actually “deleted” it which probably caused a nice warm and fuzzy feeling inside my pc) and tried Afrideed.

What a pleasant surprise!

Registration was easy: on screen. I could chose my own username and password.

I faxed “proof of payment” and within half an hour received a “thank you for the payment and you are activated” e mail. Logging in took only a few letters to type in [unlike the three block effort required by DeedSearch]. Searches are intuitive and easy. The user interface is modern and has a sleek feel to it. I could set my “default deeds office”, which speeds things up. The search seemed quick and when the information was on screen in a very user friendly format, I could print it out or save to pdf. At the end of the search screen is an (free) option to click for a Surveyor General Map indicating the property. And Afrideed does not log me out every few minutes as DeedSearch annoyingly did: once online, one stays online.

And somehow the searches were not that expensive: I did not see my credit funds draining away as quickly.

I certainly recommend this search program: See www.afrideed.co.za

Regards
Sieg