Look after your RDP house

SECUNDA – Many people have fallen victim to various scams involving the sale of RDP houses.

Ms Philile Mbokazi from the Mbokazi Attorneys in Secunda, said it is high time that people wake up and stop wasting their hard earned money by illegally buying RDP houses.

“People are desperate to own houses, but instead they end up losing the little that they have.”

Ms Mbokazi has provided the Ridge Times with useful information that people need to know once they own an RDP house.

State-subsidised houses, which are commonly known as RDP houses, are built with funds provided by the State.

Occupants of state-subsidised houses are not allowed to sell or vacate their properties for a period of eight years from the date that the house was acquired (transferred to them), without first offering the property to the State.

If they do leave, the house becomes the property of the State.

Section 10A of the Housing Act (as amended) provides that: “Notwithstanding any provisions to the contrary in any other law, it shall be a condition of every housing subsidy, as defined in the Code, granted to a natural person in terms of any national housing programme for the construction or purchase of a dwelling or serviced site, that such person shall not sell or otherwise alienate his or her dwelling or site within a period of eight years from the date on which the property was acquired by that person unless the dwelling or site has first been offered to the relevant provincial housing department”.

Ms Mbokazi said this section states that if you have been given an RDP house, you are not allowed to sell that house for eight years after receiving it.

“If you no longer need that house or have to move to another place, you must return it to the municipality.

“It must be understood that RDP houses cannot even be ‘donated’ to others within the specified time, which is contrary to what most people believe.

“It is only after the specified eight years that the ownership of the house passes on to the beneficiary fully.

“It is at this point that you will be able to obtain the title deed and be able to sell it should you wish to.”

The person who wants to sell the house must be the owner (in possession of title deed) or an agent acting on behalf of the owner.

There must be a valid sales contract and transferring attorneys should be appointed to register the transfer in another’s name.

Only once registration of transfer takes place will the buyer be the legal owner.

If you buy an RDP house, you must ensure that the person who sells the house, has not sold the house to other people as well, and that he or she has the right to sell the house.

They must also ensure that payment only takes place on registration of transfer.

An agreement to sell the RDP house before the end of eight years, even if it is an affidavit commissioned at the police station, is not legal and is void, which means that neither party can go to court to enforce the contract.

It means that that contract does not exist at all.

The law cannot enforce any legal obligation to either party, especially the disappointed party because they are not entitled to any protective laws as far as contracts are concerned.

Points to remember before you buy an RDP house:

* Check when the house was first transferred to the owner. If the period of eight years has not lapsed, walk away. Do not buy, it is illegal. Do not waste your time with written affidavits, they are not worth the paper they are written on.

* Ask to see the title deed, it is the only way you will know that the seller has a right to sell the house to you.

* Involve the attorneys, there is no other way of transferring the property without the assistance of an attorney.

* Money cannot be paid to the seller until the house has been transferred to you.

* A person who has inherited an RDP house from a deceased person, cannot sell the house until it has properly been transferred to them through the process explained above.