Feedback following committee meeting with Jhb Deeds Registry management on 7 May 2026.
1. Availability and office hours of examiners to consult with conveyancers:
Examiners are required to be present in their offices from 8:00 – 11:30 to consult with conveyancers.
Other departments are to be available until 12:00.
All ongoing issues are to be escalated to the applicable AR and thereafter to the applicable deputy of that hive.
Please be reminded that there is a chain of command that is required to be followed in line with service level agreements in the department.
If you continue to experience issues with specific members of staff, these may be brought to the attention of the committee for addressing at our next meeting, but it is imperative that specific individuals are named and that complaints in general terms are limited as it is less effective to address issues in general terms. It is also more beneficial for issues to be addressed immediately and not to wait for our monthly meetings.
2. Unnecessary rejections and notes:
Our ongoing challenges in this regard will now be addressed in section meetings to get to the root cause of and address these issues. This means that the deputy who oversees a specific hive (made up of ARs, senior and junior examiners), will meet regularly to address issues brought to their attention and use these opportunities to educate their members. This will hopefully begin to address unnecessary notes and rejections.
The only way that this is going to be effective is with our input and co-operation so please take the time to escalate these concerns. We will revisit this in a few months’ time to evaluate the effectiveness of the approach. We are hopeful that this will make a big difference going forward.
There will also be a return to monitoring of deeds, by the ARs.
3. Email address of VA section:
Please take note of the correct email address for VA notifications to lie for inspection: you are to utilize:
Jhbcorrespondence@dalrrd.gov.za
If you have sent the email to this email address, and it is still not noted as a caveat against the property, the examiners are not permitted to expect conveyancers to attend to what is the deeds office function. The examiner is expected to remedy this and not raise a prep note for conveyancers to attend to, or to reject for this.
Management will address why too many caveats are not being noted upon receipt of the emails.
4. Missing deeds and documents out of covers:
This is of growing concern as it has become an almost daily occurrence and will be addressed by the deputies in their sections. Again, we need to be on the lookout for patterns. If specific examiners are implicated on a regular basis, we are required to bring this to the ARs attention.
5. Misplacing of Permanent/ township & sectional title files:
This is another ongoing challenge we are facing although Moses Mabusela has been very helpful in locating many misplaced documents and files. The register which is supposed to be used for staff to sign out such files will be strictly enforced with township and permanently filed folders as there are often issues with these.
6. Aircon temperature:
This is again being addressed with the landlord. Too hot in summer; too cold in winter. Hopefully, they get it right now.
7. Dots trackings from offices:
The JAA is addressing, with the CRD, why the information available on trackings attended to from our offices, on third party platforms, now contains limited information compared with trackings done in the deeds office. Feedback will follow in due course.
8. We would like to request all colleagues to ensure that no papers or documents are left on desks, windowsills and other surfaces when you leave the deeds office daily.
9. Next meeting: 4 June 2026.
We believe that these meetings have been fruitful and management have shown that they are open to engaging with us in a collaborative manner to ensure a well-functioning office. Kindly therefore be a part of the solution by taking the time to address any issues as recommended above.
Regards
Conveyancing Committee
