The higher property prices rise in SA, the more it seems to conveyancers such as Brian Kew that the public, if not the market, is turning against them.

Kew, a conveyancer at Werksmans in Johannesburg, says the public thinks the registration of a property is a simple procedure and the fees earned by him and other conveyancers are unjustified.

"It is unfortunate," he sighs. "They do not have an understanding of the process."

In this year's budget, government adjusted transfer duty brackets, increasing the exempt threshold for transfer duties from R140000 to R150000 from March 1.

Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said the new transfer duty would reduce the tax burden on lower and middle income earners in SA. He estimated this would result in a revenue loss of R100m.

Transfer duty on a house valued at R750000 currently amounts to R42900. For a house valued at R1m, the duty is R62900.

The conveyancing fee on a house valued at R1m is R11400, including value-added tax (VAT).

The public is under the impression that a pro forma account setting out conveyancing fees and other disbursements is due to the conveyancer, say property experts.

Kew insists, though, that SA has one of the best land registrations in the world. "It is imperative that the country maintain best practice."

In its narrow meaning, a conveyancer is a professional who conveys property. But the term embraces a far wider range of responsibilities.

Roger Green, chairman of the property committee of the Law Society of SA, says that in addition to deeds office documents, a conveyancer also usually drafts sale agreements, and deeds of donation or loan that give rise to the registration of transfer or of a mortgage bond. " The conveyancer requires a broad knowledge of many laws, particularly the tax laws," he says.
It is the responsibility of a conveyancer to ensure that the purchase price is paid. In addition, transfer duty, VAT, rates and other local authority charges must be collected, Green says.

Fanie du Preez, property lawyer at Knowles Husain Lindsay, says the public is unaware that conveyancing work is not reserved for lawyers the Deeds Registries Act permits an owner of land to execute a deed of transfer in the presence of the registrar of deeds. Only the preparation of deeds is reserved for conveyancers.

A landowner can attend to most of the conveyancing process if they find an obliging conveyancer to prepare the deed, Du Preez says.
However, the owner would need to negotiate "mysterious procedures", known only to conveyancers and officers in the deeds office, which are involved in transferring titles to land as the Supreme Court of Appeal has on occasion described conveyancing.

"If the appeal court finds conveyancing puzzling, what chance does the man in the street have of understanding its demands?"
He believes it will be difficult to find someone "crazy enough" to prepare such deeds as the lawyer takes ultimate responsibility for their correctness hence professional indemnity insurance.

In 1988, after a thorough investigation, the Competition Board advised the Association of Law Societies that the "statutory reservation of conveyancing for members of the profession was justified in the public interest".

However, the board recommended that the negotiability of conveyancing fees should be given consideration by the law societies, and this was accepted.

Kew says although the fees are negotiable, "we do not like to do so as it makes us unprofitable".

He says a typical pro forma account does not mean that all the fees are due to the conveyancer.

In the mid-1990 s there was proposal by government that conveyancing work should not remain reserved for lawyers, but nothing further happened.

Green says government is moving towards the introduction of an electronic deeds registration system. "It is essential for the maintenance of the integrity that only conveyancers who are qualified lawyers work with the deeds offices in the implementation of a sound land registration system."

He says the disciplinary rules and regulations of the law society, coupled with high ethical standards laid down by the society, provide members of the public with expected standards of performance.

Practitioners who fail to adhere to these standards are disciplined by the society and the high court.

"Sanction can include removal from the roll of conveyancers."

Du Preez says owners need to ask themselves whether their time is better spent coming to grips with conveyancing as the process can be time consuming even for lawyers or making money in the business they know best.