Understanding Who Pays Conveyancing Fees in South Africa

Conveyancing fees in South Africa are not a single charge — they are a bundle of separate costs, and the longstanding convention is that the seller pays the transfer fees and the buyer pays the bond registration costs, transfer duty (above the statutory exemption threshold), and the deeds office fees attributable to the bond. The conveyancer’s professional fees for the transfer and bond work are guided by the Law Society of South Africa’s recommended fee guideline, issued under the Legal Practice Act 28 of 2014, while transfer duty is a statutory tax assessed by SARS and deeds office fees are set by the relevant Deeds Office. VAT is charged on the conveyancer’s professional fees and disbursements in the normal way. The split is conventional, not statutory — parties to a sale agreement may agree otherwise, and the written agreement overrules the default.

What “Conveyancing Fees” Actually Include

The phrase “conveyancing fees” is shorthand for a bundle of distinct charges, not one fee. Each item belongs to a different party and is governed by a different rule, so budgeting for a property transfer requires unpacking the bundle before signing an offer to purchase.

• Conveyancer’s professional fees — transfer leg: the fee charged for attending to the transfer of ownership from seller to buyer.
• Conveyancer’s professional fees — bond leg: the fee charged for attending to the registration of the buyer’s bond with the financing bank.
• Deeds Office fees: statutory fees charged by the Deeds Office for examining the deed, lodging it, and registering it in the deeds registry.
• Transfer duty: a statutory tax assessed by SARS on the acquisition of property above the exemption threshold, paid via the conveyancer as part of the registration process.
• VAT: charged on the conveyancer’s professional fees and on most disbursements in the normal way.

Other associated costs — rates clearance certificates from the municipality, levy clearance certificates from the body corporate, FICA compliance work, and electronic generation fees — are typically built into the bundle but each belongs to a different party. Confusing the conveyancer’s professional fee with transfer duty is the most common error in buyer and seller budgeting, and the place where most “unexpected” costs show up at registration.

The Default Cost-Split: Who Pays What

The convention below is the default that applies when the offer to purchase is silent on a specific cost. Where the agreement is silent, the convention governs and the conveyancer will charge each cost to the default payer.

Cost	Default payer	Why
Transfer fees (conveyancer’s fees for attending to transfer)	Seller	The transfer attends to the seller’s obligation to pass ownership
Bond registration fees (conveyancer’s fees for attending to bond)	Buyer	The bond attends to the buyer’s financing
Transfer duty	Buyer	Statutory tax on acquisition, assessed by SARS above the exemption threshold
Deeds Office fees — transfer	Seller	Attributable to the transfer
Deeds Office fees — bond	Buyer	Attributable to the bond
Rates clearance / levy clearance	Seller	Required to obtain a clearance certificate from the municipality or body corporate
VAT on professional fees	Pass-through to whoever pays the fee	Charged on the conveyancer’s fees in the normal way

The split is conventional, not statutory. An offer to purchase or sale agreement can re-allocate any of these costs, and the written agreement governs. Most “who pays what” disputes arise because the agreement is silent on a specific cost — the default then falls back to the convention.

The Legal Framework Behind the Fees

Four pieces of legislation and one professional guideline shape the cost of a property transfer in South Africa:

• Legal Practice Act 28 of 2014 — governs the legal profession and the setting of professional fees for legal practitioners, including conveyancers. It is the umbrella statute that authorises the professional fee framework.
• Transfer Duty Act 40 of 1949 — the statute under which transfer duty is assessed, levied, and collected by SARS. The rates and exemption threshold are revised in the annual national budget.
• Deeds Registries Act 47 of 1937 — governs the registration of deeds and the deeds office fees charged by the Deeds Office.
• VAT Act 89 of 1991 — governs the value-added tax charged on the conveyancer’s professional fees and applicable disbursements.
• LSSA recommended fee guideline — published by the Law Society of South Africa, the guideline sets a recommended fee scale that most conveyancers use as a tariff basis. It is not a binding tariff, but it is the default reference in fee disputes.

Conveyancing work is reserved for qualified attorneys who also hold a notary public and conveyancer certificate — only they may attend to deeds registration. A general-practice attorney without the conveyancer certificate must brief the work out to a registered conveyancer, which is one of the reasons firms that hold the in-house capacity (like Burger Huyser Attorneys, whose Bedfordview branch is staffed by a qualified Notary and Conveyancer) can run transfers on tighter timelines than firms that have to brief out.

Transfer Duty: The Single Largest Buyer Cost

Transfer duty is calculated on the purchase price (or fair market value, whichever is higher) using SARS’s sliding-scale rates. Below the exemption threshold, no transfer duty is payable. Above the threshold, duty scales from a low percentage on the portion just above the threshold to a higher percentage on the portion above the top bracket.

The current threshold and rates must be confirmed with SARS or the conveyancer before budgeting — they shift in the annual budget. Any quote older than the most recent budget speech should be re-checked against the current SARS schedule.

Transfer duty is paid via the conveyancer to SARS as part of the registration process. It is not a conveyancing fee in the strict sense, but it is typically the single largest cost a buyer faces on the transfer side of the deal — often larger than the bond registration fee and the deeds office fees combined.

The LSSA Tariff Guideline and How It Shapes the Fee

The LSSA guideline sets a recommended fee scale based on the purchase price or bond amount, with higher purchase prices attracting higher fees. The guideline is a recommendation, not a binding tariff — parties may negotiate a fixed fee, an hourly rate, or a discounted fee, and that written agreement is enforceable.

Fees are usually charged separately for the transfer work and the bond registration work, even when the same conveyancer attends to both. The guideline is updated periodically — the 2026 update adjusts the recommended rates, and any budget should be built on the current year’s guideline before the offer to purchase is finalised.

Deeds Office Fees and Why Location Matters

Every property is registered in the Deeds Office for the region in which it is located — there is no national registration, and the Deeds Office is determined by the property’s location, not the conveyancer’s choice.

Deeds Office	Region served
Pretoria	Gauteng (parts), Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West
Johannesburg	Gauteng (parts)
Cape Town	Western Cape, Northern Cape
Pietermaritzburg	KwaZulu-Natal
Bloemfontein	Free State
King William’s Town	Eastern Cape

Deeds Office fees are set by regulation and are the same regardless of which conveyancer lodges the file. The same property may not be transferred in a different Deeds Office — the location determines the venue. For Gauteng properties, the choice between the Pretoria Deeds Office and the Johannesburg Deeds Office is determined by the magisterial district in which the property falls, not by the parties’ preference.

When the Default Split Is Overridden

The written sale agreement controls the cost split in any specific transaction. In practice, the split is sometimes renegotiated as part of the deal — the buyer may offer a higher purchase price in exchange for the seller covering bond costs, or the seller may agree to pay transfer duty in a buyer’s-market transaction.

Estate agents and conveyancers should always confirm the agreed split from the offer to purchase before drafting, and any variation agreed after the offer has been signed should be reduced to writing in a signed addendum. A dispute over the cost split is usually a contract dispute, not a conveyancing-law dispute — and the wording of the agreement, not the convention, is what the court will look at.

Practical Considerations for Buyers and Sellers

Budgeting for a transfer is the most reliable way to avoid the late-stage surprise that pushes a deal into a renegotiation or a cancellation. The standard checklist, organised by role, looks like this:

• For the buyer: budget for transfer duty, bond costs, the buyer’s half of deeds office fees, and VAT on the conveyancer’s bond fees. A pre-approval from the bond attorney will produce an estimate and should be obtained before the offer to purchase is signed.
• For the seller: budget for transfer fees and the seller’s half of deeds office fees, plus rates clearance or levy clearance costs. These are typically settled from the proceeds of sale.
• For both parties: the fee guideline moves annually — confirm the current rates with the conveyancer before finalising the offer.
• VAT-registered vendors: the transaction may be zero-rated for VAT under section 8 of the VAT Act, in which case transfer duty still applies but the VAT position changes the seller’s net proceeds.

Burger Huyser Attorneys’ Notary and Conveyancer practice absorbs the full bundle under one roof — Amanda le Roux, the firm’s qualified Notary and Conveyancer, is based at the Bedfordview branch (45A Florence Avenue, Bedfordview, 011 201 7190) and is supported by notaries at the Linden/Randburg, Pretoria (Menlyn), Centurion, and Sandton offices. The firm attends to transfers across Gauteng and can coordinate with a correspondent attorney for properties registered outside the province, which is the kind of scope that lets a single instruction cover the whole transaction rather than splitting it across two firms.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who pays conveyancing fees — the buyer or the seller?

The default convention in South Africa is that the seller pays the transfer fees and the buyer pays the bond registration costs, transfer duty, and the deeds office fees for the bond. The split is conventional, not statutory — the offer to purchase or sale agreement can re-allocate any of these costs, and the written agreement governs.

Is transfer duty a conveyancing fee?

No — transfer duty is a statutory tax assessed by SARS on the acquisition of property above the exemption threshold, calculated on a sliding scale. It is paid via the conveyancer as part of the registration process but it is not a fee for the conveyancer’s services.

Are conveyancing fees fixed by law?

No — the Legal Practice Act 28 of 2014 governs the profession, and the Law Society of South Africa publishes a recommended fee guideline that most conveyancers use as a default. The guideline is a recommendation, not a binding tariff; the actual fee is what the conveyancer and the client agree in writing.

Why does the Deeds Office matter for my property?

Every property in South Africa is registered in the Deeds Office for the region in which it is located — there is no national registration. The relevant Deeds Office depends on the property’s location (Pretoria, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Pietermaritzburg, Bloemfontein, or King William’s Town), and the deeds office fees are set by regulation regardless of which conveyancer lodges the file.

Can the buyer and seller agree on a different cost split?

Yes — the cost split is a matter of contract. The offer to purchase or sale agreement can re-allocate any of the costs, and the written agreement overrules the default convention. In practice, the split is sometimes renegotiated as part of the deal terms.

How often do conveyancing fees change?

The LSSA fee guideline is updated periodically — the 2026 update adjusted the recommended rates. Any budget should be built on the current year’s guideline, and the conveyancer should confirm the current tariff before finalising the offer.

If you are buying or selling property and want a conveyancer to quote on the transfer or bond registration, Burger Huyser Attorneys’ Notary and Conveyancer practice can take instructions through the Bedfordview branch (45A Florence Avenue, Bedfordview, 011 201 7190) or any of the firm’s Gauteng offices. The firm attends to transfers across Gauteng and can coordinate with a correspondent attorney for properties outside the province. For a fee estimate, the LSSA’s recommended fee guideline is the default reference, and the conveyancing team will quote on a per-file basis once the purchase price, property location, and bond details are confirmed. The firm carries a 4.8/5 average across 250+ Google reviews (Trustindex verified “Top Rated Law Firm in South Africa”) and is staffed by a qualified Notary and Conveyancer registered with the Legal Practice Council.