An advertised property comes with claims: the size, who is selling, what was paid for it last time, whether the granny flat is legal. The deeds register holds what is actually recorded, and an instant property search (R235.00) puts that record in your inbox in minutes. This is what each section of the report contains and what to do with it.
Owner information
The report names the current registered owner or owners. Check this against the person signing your offer to purchase: a spouse married in community of property, a trust, a company, or a deceased estate on the title changes who must sign and what the conveyancer will need. If the seller is not the registered owner, you want to know why before you sign, not after.
Property identification and size
The erf or farm number, township, registration division, and the official extent in square metres or hectares. The extent is the number to compare against the listing. Advertised sizes are frequently rounded up or quote the building rather than the land, and the registered extent is what you are actually buying. A meaningful gap between the two is a negotiation point at best and a red flag at worst.
Title deed reference and registration date
The current title deed number and when it was registered. The reference matters later: it is what you need to download the deed itself, where the full conditions of title live. The registration date tells you how long the current owner has held the property, which frames the price history that follows.
Purchase history
The price paid for the property where available, plus previous sale prices and dates. Set this against the asking price and the time held. A property bought eighteen months ago and relisted at a much higher price invites a question the agent should be able to answer. History with no recorded price is usually a transfer where no purchase price applied, such as an inheritance or a divorce settlement, which itself tells you something about the seller's position.
Bonds
Bonds registered against the property, which show what the owner owes secured lenders. A bond does not stop a sale; it is settled from the proceeds at transfer. What the bond section tells you is whether the numbers plausibly work: an asking price below the registered bond amounts means the seller needs the bank's cooperation to sell, and that affects how firm the price really is.
Servitudes and restrictions
Rights of way, access rights, and other restrictions registered against the property. This is the section that explains why the neighbour drives across the bottom of the garden, and it is the section most worth reading before an offer on any property where something looks informal: a shared driveway, a panhandle access, a municipal pipe crossing the erf. The report flags what is registered; the deed itself carries the full wording.
What the report does not tell you
The report reflects the register, and the register has a processing lag: a sale registered in the last two to three weeks may not appear yet. It also does not cover what was never registered, so unapproved building work, boundary disputes that never reached a court order, and informal arrangements between neighbours are outside its reach. And where the report shows the deed number and that conditions exist, the conditions' actual wording sits in the title deed, one document download away, with the instant search fee deducted from the document price when the deed is electronically available.
For most buyers the sequence is: report before the offer, deed before the deal goes unconditional.
Common questions
How current is the information?
The search runs against a live link to the Deeds Office, so it reflects the register as it stands. The register itself lags reality by the registration process, so a transfer from the last two to three weeks may still be in processing.
Does the report show the owner's ID number?
Owner details are part of the registered record. ID numbers are masked on delivered documents where appropriate, in line with POPIA.
Is the report enough, or do I also need the title deed?
The report is the overview: owner, size, history, bonds, and whether restrictions exist. The full wording of conditions and servitudes is in the title deed. If the report shows conditions on a property you intend to buy, order the deed with the report fee deducted from the price.