05 Estate Transfers Article

Estate Transfers

Different types of estate transfers:

1. Transfer to an heir in a deceased estate

Property transferred from deceased estate to person that inherited that property from the deceased.

A delayed transfer as the transfer can only take place at the end of the winding up of the deceased estate.  Can take up to approximately 12 months to finalise.  The property will be transferred in the deeds registry after the Master has approved the Liquidation and Distribution Account and the Master has given the go ahead to transfer the property.

2. Sale by an heir before the heir has taken transfer from the deceased estate

Person entitled to inherit a property from the deceased estate wishes to sell the property on to a third party purchaser before taking transfer from the deceased estate. The two transfers (from deceased estate to heir) and (from heir to third party) can take place simultaneously in the deeds office.

NB!  Heir can only sell the property (sign the OTP) once the Master has approved the L&D Account.  If they wish to do it before this, then the sale must be made subject to the approval of such L&D within a specified time.

Purchaser must be made aware that this is a lengthy process as the deceased estate must be finalised before the second transfer can be made. 

3. Sale from deceased estate directly to purchaser

Property sold by executor of deceased estate from the deceased estate directly to a third party purchaser.

The only person that can sign the offer to purchase is the Executor appointed in terms of the Letter of Executorship. If there are more than one executor, they must all sign.

Documents required when signing Offer to Purchase:

  • 1. Copy of will
  • 2. Copy of death certificate
  • 3. ID of deceased
  • 4. Estate Value below R250,000
  • Letter of Authority issued by Master's Office
  • 5. Estate value above R250,000
  • Letter of Executorship issued by Master's Office
  • ID of executor
  • Name and contact details of executor

Issues

An Offer to Purchase can only be signed when the Letter of Authority or Letter of Executorship has been issued by the Master’s Office.

If there is no Letter of Authority or Letter of Executorship, then an Offer to Purchase cannot validly be signed by any person as the Master has not yet authorised anyone to sell the property on behalf of the estate.  

What to do if the seller does not have the Letter of Authority or Letter of Executorship?

The Estate must be reported to the Master’s Office with the required documents so that the Master can issue a Letter of Authority / Letter of Executorship. 

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