If the eviction goes ahead as planned on November 27, the administration of property deeds and titles in Johannesburg will be thrown into disarray, negatively affecting attorneys, estate agents, banks and property owners.

ApexHi Properties, one of the largest property firms listed on the JSE, said that the  Johannesburg High Court ordered on Tuesday that the deeds office be evicted on November 27.

The deeds office had a lease with ApexHi Properties on 5500m² in the Johannesburg central business district until September 30.

ApexHi said this eviction order followed an urgent application made by the national public works department to the court, after ApexHi locked the deeds office out of the premises on November 1, one month after the lease for the space had expired.

ApexHi said “landlords around the country” would “celebrate” the judgment because it “was made clear that the property rights of landlords in the private sector” would be protected.

Herschel Jawitz, CE of Jawitz Properties, said that if the deeds office was evicted it would be “severely disruptive for the entire property industry including home owners, banks and the receiver of revenue”.

Jawitz said the biggest effect would be a “developing backlog regarding the transfer of ownership of property”.

ApexHi MD David Rice said the terms of ApexHi’s lease offer to the deeds office remained “open for acceptance”. “We believe an agreement should be reached giving the deeds office security of tenure,” he said.

Rice said ApexHi’s 10-year lease with the deeds office expired on September 30. The national public works department had called for tenders until August 30, and ApexHi had tendered a five-year lease in June.

ApexHi said despite numerous attempts to finalise the lease there was no written communication from the department and the tender period elapsed.

ApexHi said the department finally advised that it would accept a two-year lease, which varied the terms of the tender and showed “scant regard for the tender process”.

The company said it rejected this and reiterated that the deeds office should vacate the premises. When the deeds office failed to vacate the premises, ApexHi said it locked staff out of the building on November 1 to protect its property rights.

The department then went to court asking the court to give it an eight-month extension to June next year to vacate the premises.

ApexHi said it opposed this and applied for an eviction order, which was granted. The department had not commented by the time of going to press.