Selling your house – A world of new pitfalls

Selling your house – A world of new pitfalls


An estate agent, I won’t say right now which company she is with, gave me an interesting list yesterday. So according to new legislation in SA, a house cannot be sold “Voetstoots” anymore. Sellers must make everything known, and if a buyer finds fault with the house, he can get the seller to fix those faults. Some of the things that the seller has to acknowledge now include

• Are the building plans up to date? Do you possess copies of the building plans?
• Are there any electrical faults?
• Faults relating to drainage.
• Leaking taps or ruptured pipes.
• Are there keys for all the doors?
• Are there damp problems of any kind?
• Are there any roof leaks?
• Are there any structural problems?


These are just a few of the points on the list. The list goes on to mention the condition of many things in and outside the house, such as carpets, cupboards, pool and even the position of the boundary fence.

One of the most common answers I get when I tell clients that they need building plans for things like garden sheds and lapas is that they bought the house with these things already built. Many of them, in fact most of them, are not even aware that you need building plans for things like swimming pools, garden sheds and lapas. I’m not even sure if many of the estate agents out there realize that you need building plans for these things, and I can see it is only a matter of time before a building inspector from the council will have to inspect a house before it can be sold.

Now all of this is of course great news for the building industry, especially for us people doing building plans, as more and more owners will be forced to get building plans approved whereas in the past they would just add pools and lapas and stuff to their homes without plans.
For the buyers this will also (hopefully) be of benefit, and I can just imagine how the quality of homes on offer is going to pick up.

Remember there are many more tips to be found at http://www.sahometalk.com/index.php