An offer to purchase is a binding contract the moment both parties sign it. The conditions in it (bond approval, sale of the buyer’s property) give you defined exits, but "I later discovered something about the property I didn’t like" is not one of them. Most of those discoveries were sitting in the Deeds Office record before the offer was signed, available to anyone who looked. This is what looking involves, in the order that catches the most for the least money.
Confirm who you are buying from
Start with an Instant Property Search (R230.00, results in seconds). It returns the registered owner, the purchase price and date of previous transfers, registered bonds, and the property’s transfer history. Check three things against the deal in front of you. The registered owner must be the person selling, and where the title shows a trust, a company, or joint owners, the offer needs the right signatures or it is not worth the paper. The seller’s own purchase price and date frame the asking price: a property bought recently and relisted far higher invites a question. And the registered extent tells you the actual size, which listings round generously.
Check the money side
The same report shows bonds registered against the property. Bonds are settled from the proceeds at transfer, so they rarely block a sale, but an asking price near or below the total bonded amount means the seller needs their bank’s cooperation to sell at that number, and that changes how firm the price is and how smoothly the transaction is likely to run.
Check the boundaries
The registered extent says how big the property is; the Surveyor General diagram says where it is. An SG diagram (R230.00) shows the surveyed boundaries and beacon positions as officially recorded. It is the document that settles whether the fence, the driveway, or the neighbour’s garage is where the paper says it should be. On any property where something looks informal, a shared access, a panhandle, a boundary wall that wanders, get the diagram before the offer rather than after.
Read the title itself
The property search tells you restrictions exist; the title deed carries their wording. Conditions of title can prohibit a second dwelling, restrict business use, reserve mineral rights, or grant a servitude across exactly the corner where you planned to build. For a straightforward property, a Title Deed copy (R675.00) and a careful read may be enough. Where the deed is old, layered with endorsements, or written in the legal formulations of its era, the AI Detailed Property Report (R1,999.00) scans every current deed, endorsement and condition registered against the property and reports in plain language on the ownership chain, mineral rights status, servitudes, restrictive covenants, and anything that reads as a red flag. On a multi-million-rand purchase, it is the difference between "the attorney will check at transfer" and knowing before you commit.
What the Deeds Office cannot tell you
Registered records cover what was registered. Unapproved building work, a boundary dispute that never produced a court order, zoning and municipal approvals, and the physical condition of the building live elsewhere: at the municipality, in the seller’s disclosures, and in an inspector’s report. The deeds checks above are necessary, cheap and fast; they are not the whole of due diligence, and nothing here replaces the conveyancer who will handle the transfer.
Run the R230.00 search on every property you seriously consider. Escalate to the diagram, the deed, or the full AI report in proportion to the price of the property and the strangeness of what the first search shows.
Frequently asked questions
What is the single most important check before making an offer?
The property search. It confirms the registered owner, the size, the bonds, and the price history in one report, and each of those regularly contradicts what a listing claims.
Can I withdraw from a signed offer if I find a problem afterwards?
Only on the grounds the offer itself provides, such as a bond-approval condition. Discovering a servitude or a title restriction after signing is generally not an exit, which is why these checks belong before signature.
Do I need the AI report on every purchase?
No. It earns its fee on older properties, farms, properties with layered endorsements, and high-value purchases where a missed condition is expensive. For a recent suburban title, the property search plus a read of the deed usually covers it.