# Rates clearance certificate in South Africa - Canonical URL: https://bond.co.za/guides/rates-clearance-certificate-south-africa - Author: Neil B - Published: 2026-11-02 - Last updated: 2026-11-02 1. [Home](https://bond.co.za/) 3. [Guides](https://bond.co.za/guides) 5. [Costs & fees](https://bond.co.za/guides/costs-and-fees) 7. Rates clearance certificate Costs & fees bond.co.za's answer: a rates clearance certificate is the municipality's confirmation that the property's rates and service charges for the two years before transfer are paid. Under section 118(1) of the Municipal Property Rates Act, the Deeds Office cannot register the transfer without it — and it is usually **the seller's cost**. - It is a legal requirement, not a courtesy — no certificate, no registration at the Deeds Office. - The municipality looks back two years on the rates and services account; arrears must be settled before it issues the certificate. - Timing varies by municipality — in the larger metros, conveyancers commonly report multi-week waits, so the application goes in early. By [Neil B](https://bond.co.za/expert) · Checked against published primary sources · Published 2026-11-02 · Last verified 2026-11-02 [Check what you could qualify for](https://bond.co.za/#qualify)[Estimate the transfer costs](https://bond.co.za/bond-and-transfer-cost-calculator) Source: South African Reserve Bank (SARB)Verified 23 Sept 2026 Rate your bond is priced off23 Sept 2026 10.75%Prime lending rate today A bond is priced off prime whoever holds it — next SARB MPC decision is 19 Nov 2026. Source: [South African Reserve Bank (SARB) MPC statement](https://www.resbank.co.za/en/home/publications/publication-detail-pages/statements/monetary-policy-statements/2026/september). Last verified 23 Sept 2026. Loan amountR 1 500 000 Term20 years Interest rate10.75% (prime) Monthly repaymentR 15 228 Total repaid over 20 yearsR 3 654 824 Excludes bond registration and transfer costs. A quarter-percent rate difference on this loan changes the repayment by R 254 a month — which is why offers are worth comparing. [See the full bond calculator](https://bond.co.za/bond-calculator) ## What is a rates clearance certificate and why do you need one? A rates clearance certificate (often shortened to RCC) is a document issued by the municipality where the property is situated, confirming that the rates and service charges on that property for the **two years before transfer** have been paid. The requirement is statutory: section 118(1) of the **Municipal Property Rates Act 6 of 2004** provides that the Registrar of Deeds may not register the transfer of a property unless the municipality has certified in writing that those amounts are settled. No certificate, no registration — which makes it one of the documents on which every South African property transfer turns. The law exists to protect both sides of the deal. Municipal rates debt follows the property: a buyer who takes transfer of a home with unpaid rates can find the municipality collecting that debt from _them_ as the new owner. The certificate forces the account clean before ownership changes hands. For the seller it is the last big admin step of the sale; for the buyer it is the assurance that they are not inheriting the previous owner's municipal arrears. Where the certificate sits in the wider sequence — offer, bond approval, conveyancer, lodge, register — is set out in our [property transfer process guide](https://bond.co.za/guides/property-transfer-process-south-africa). ## How do you get a rates clearance certificate? **The conveyancing attorney does the applying** — a seller does not queue at a municipal counter personally. The sequence inside a typical transfer runs like this: 1. **Application.** Early in the transfer, the conveyancer applies to the municipality for the clearance figures on the property's rates and utilities account. 2. **Assessment.** The municipality inspects the account and calculates everything owed for the two-year lookback period, plus current charges up to the expected registration date. 3. **Payment.** Any arrears, plus the anticipated charges to registration date, must be paid before issue — these amounts typically come out of the seller's sale proceeds in the transfer account. 4. **Issue.** The municipality issues the certificate, dated and valid for a limited period. That validity window is set by the municipality and differs from council to council, so the conveyancer times the application so the certificate is still valid at registration. 5. **Lodgement.** The certificate is lodged with the rest of the transfer documents at the Deeds Office, where the Registrar checks it before registering the transfer. The practical takeaway for a seller: give your conveyancer accurate municipal account details early, keep paying rates and utilities until registration, and expect the certificate step to be the one that sets the pace of the transfer. Two documents ## Abridged or full clearance certificate: which one applies? The Deeds Office requires one specific document under section 118(1). A deeper account settlement is optional and negotiated. Practitioners distinguish two documents, and the difference matters when a sale agreement is being drafted. The **abridged rates clearance certificate** is the statutory document: it certifies the two-year lookback that section 118(1) of the Municipal Property Rates Act requires, and it is the one the Deeds Office needs before it will register transfer. A **full clearance** goes further — it settles or certifies the entire municipal account, including amounts older than the statutory lookback, and is used where the buyer or the sale agreement specifically demands proof that no historical debt is outstanding. Abridged versus full rates clearance certificate in South Africa: what each document certifies, its legal basis and when it is used — a bond.co.za guide updated 2026-11-02. |   | Abridged clearance certificate | Full clearance | | --- | --- | --- | | What it certifies | Rates and service charges for the two years before transfer | The whole municipal account, including historical amounts older than the lookback | | Legal basis | Section 118(1), Municipal Property Rates Act 6 of 2004 | No separate statute — a contractual arrangement between buyer and seller | | Required for transfer? | Yes — the Deeds Office will not register without it | No — optional, typically negotiated in the sale agreement | | Who usually requests it | Every transfer, via the conveyancer | Buyers (and lenders) wanting assurance no older debt follows the property | Terminology and exact document names vary between municipalities — your conveyancing attorney will confirm which certificate your council issues and which one your sale agreement requires. ## Who pays for the rates clearance certificate? **Usually the seller, unless the sale agreement says otherwise.** The certificate exists to clear the seller's municipal account before handing the property over, so market convention treats it — like agent commission and bond cancellation — as a cost of selling. In practice the conveyancer collects the amounts from the sale proceeds in the transfer account: the arrears and forward charges are settled first, and the municipality's own fee for issuing the certificate is paid from the same pot. It is negotiable, though. A buyer who badly wants the deal can offer to carry the clearance costs, and in a buyer's market a seller may concede it in the agreement rather than lose the sale. Whatever the parties agree, the key is that it is written into the sale agreement — the conveyancer allocates the costs per the agreement, not per assumption. How the whole cost split between buyer and seller works is covered in our [transfer costs: buyer vs seller](https://bond.co.za/guides/transfer-costs-buyer-seller) guide. ## How much does a rates clearance certificate cost? There is **no national tariff**: each municipality sets its own fee for issuing a clearance certificate, so what a seller pays depends on where the property is and how that council structures its clearance charges. bond.co.za deliberately does not quote a single rand figure here — quoting one metro's fee as if it were the national answer would mislead the metros it does not apply to. Your conveyancing attorney will quote the exact fee for your municipality once the clearance figures come back. What reliably costs more than the fee itself is **time and arrears**: penalty interest on an unpaid rates account accumulates while the transfer waits, and a delayed certificate delays registration — which, if the buyer's bond interest or a rate guarantee is running, costs real money. Settling the account early in the transfer is the cheapest move available. ## How long does a rates clearance certificate take? It **varies by municipality** — from a few days in some councils to several weeks in the larger metros, where conveyancers commonly report multi-week waits for clearance figures and certificate issue. There is no single statutory turnaround time a seller can hold a municipality to, which is why experienced conveyancers apply at the very start of the transfer rather than waiting for the other steps to finish. Three things add delay: **backlogs** at busy metropolitan councils; **arrears queries**, where the account shows amounts the seller disputes or does not recognise; and **account corrections**, where billing details, meters or tariffs need fixing before the municipality will compute the clearance figures. None of these shorten a transfer timeline — they only stretch it, so the account should be clean and queried early. ## What if the property has arrears or historical debt? Arrears on the **current rates and services account must be settled** before the municipality will issue the certificate — in practice from the seller's sale proceeds. But the reach of that settlement is legally limited: South African courts have ruled that a municipality may not hold a transfer to ransom over **historical debt older than the period the Act lets it collect** — in effect, debt from a previous ownership era cannot lawfully block a current seller's clearance. A buyer cannot be made to pay a past owner's arrears through the transfer. If the clearance figures come back carrying amounts you believe are historical or wrong, do not simply pay to make the problem disappear. Raise it with the conveyancing attorney, who can query the account with the municipality and, where needed, have the certificate issued excluding the disputed historical amounts. Deals do stall on disputed accounts — but the resolution path runs through a documented query, not a quiet payment of someone else's debt. The whole transaction ## Where the certificate fits in the seller's and buyer's full cost picture An illustrative R1 500 000 sale, with every regulated fee computed from the current dated fee tables. The clearance fee itself is municipal and unquoted. The rates clearance certificate is one line in a stack of once-off transaction costs that surround every transfer. On an illustrative R 1 500 000 home, the **buyer's** regulated stack computes to about **R 54 006**: - **Transfer duty: R 8 700** — on the SARS 2026/27 sliding scale (effective 01 Apr 2026); the first R 1 210 000 of any property is duty-free. - **Conveyancing fees: about R 37 530** incl. VAT, per the LSSA guideline tariff (effective 01 Jul 2026); actual fees are negotiable. - **Deeds Office levy: R 1 738** for a transfer at this price band (Schedule of Fees of Office, effective 01 Apr 2026). - **Bank initiation fee: R 6 038** incl. VAT — the National Credit Act Reg 42(2) maximum for a mortgage agreement. The **seller's** stack, by convention, is: estate agent commission (negotiable, and the largest single selling cost), the municipal clearance itself (fee set by the municipality, as above), and the bond cancellation costs if the property still has a bond. Price the buyer-side stack for your own purchase price with the free [bond and transfer cost calculator](https://bond.co.za/bond-and-transfer-cost-calculator), and the full split in our [transfer costs: buyer vs seller](https://bond.co.za/guides/transfer-costs-buyer-seller) guide. ## Selling with an outstanding bond? Two clearances run in parallel Most sold properties still carry a bond, and that means two separate "clear the property" processes run at the same time: the **rates clearance** from the municipality, and the **bond cancellation** with the bank — the bank issues a cancellation figure, the buyer's bond registers, and the proceeds pay out the seller's outstanding balance at registration. Neither step can be skipped, and the slower one sets the transfer's pace. The cancellation side has its own costs and sequence — our [selling a house with an outstanding bond](https://bond.co.za/guides/selling-house-outstanding-bond-south-africa) guide walks through it, and the [bond cancellation costs](https://bond.co.za/guides/bond-cancellation-costs-south-africa) guide covers what the bank charges. ## What this guide cannot tell you Municipal processes genuinely differ, and three things on this page are deliberately left general. **The clearance fee and the certificate's validity window are local** — each municipality sets both, they change, and no national figure or period is quoted here for that reason; your conveyancer will confirm the exact current numbers for your council. **The multi-week timing reports are practitioner experience**, not a published statistic — no proprietary bond.co.za clearance-time dataset is claimed. And **this page is general information, not legal advice**: a disputed account or an unusual sale agreement needs your conveyancing attorney, not a guide. ### Buying or selling next? Two questions, no contact details — an estimated bond range and repayment at today's prime, so you know the financing side before the transfer costs land. Where do you stand in the property market right now? How soon do you expect to make the move? FAQ ## Rates clearance certificate: FAQs What is a rates clearance certificate in South Africa?+ A rates clearance certificate is a document issued by the municipality where the property is situated, confirming that the rates and service charges on that property for the two years before transfer have been paid. Section 118(1) of the Municipal Property Rates Act 6 of 2004 requires it: the Deeds Office may not register the transfer of a property without one. Who pays for the rates clearance certificate — buyer or seller?+ Usually the seller, unless the sale agreement says otherwise. The certificate is part of the seller’s cost of selling: the conveyancing attorney applies for it, the municipal account is settled from the sale proceeds in the transfer account, and the fee the municipality charges for issuing the certificate is likewise a seller-side cost by convention. How long does a rates clearance certificate take?+ It varies by municipality — from a few days in some councils to several weeks in the larger metros, where conveyancers commonly report multi-week waits. Arrears on the account and disputes over old amounts add the most delay, so the conveyancer applies at the start of the transfer, not the end. Can a property transfer without a rates clearance certificate?+ No. Section 118(1) of the Municipal Property Rates Act provides that the Registrar of Deeds may not register a transfer unless the municipality has issued the certificate — so no certificate means no registration. The courts have also ruled that a municipality may not withhold a certificate over historical debt older than the period the Act lets it collect. ## Informational disclaimer This guide is for information only and is not legal or financial advice. Municipal rates clearance procedures, fees and certificate validity windows are set by each municipality and change over time; no single fee or period is quoted on this page for that reason. Transfer duty, conveyancing and Deeds Office figures follow the published 2026/27 fee tables and move with the property price band; prime of 10.75% is current as at 23 Sept 2026 and changes at SARB MPC meetings. The statutory requirement described is section 118(1) of the Municipal Property Rates Act 6 of 2004. Confirm the specifics of your own transfer with a conveyancing attorney. No approval, outcome or timeline is guaranteed. Keep reading ## More in costs & fees The most recently updated guides in this category. [Costs & fees](https://bond.co.za/guides/costs-and-fees) [Costs included in a home loan: what can be financed](https://bond.co.za/guides/costs-included-home-loan) A standard South African bond covers the purchase price only — but the bank initiation fee can be added to the loan, some lenders lend above 100% to absorb upfront costs, and transfer duty can never be financed. Updated 27 Oct 20266 min read [Costs & fees](https://bond.co.za/guides/costs-and-fees) [Home loan insurance requirements](https://bond.co.za/guides/home-loan-insurance) South African bonds require two kinds of cover: homeowners insurance for the building and credit life as a bank condition — with premiums capped by regulation and your right to use your own insurer. Updated 20 Oct 20267 min read [Costs & fees](https://bond.co.za/guides/costs-and-fees) [Bond cancellation costs](https://bond.co.za/guides/bond-cancellation-costs-south-africa) What it really costs to cancel a bond in 2026 — the LSSA guideline fee, Deeds Office schedule, early-settlement charge, and why you pay an attorney you never appointed. Updated 19 Oct 20267 min read [Browse all costs & fees guides →](https://bond.co.za/guides/costs-and-fees) Selling? Clear the costs first ## Know the full cost picture before you sign Estimate the buyer-side transfer costs on your price in seconds — and see what the sale will really cost on both sides of the deal. [Check what you could qualify for](https://bond.co.za/#qualify)[Estimate the transfer costs](https://bond.co.za/bond-and-transfer-cost-calculator) > This is the Markdown version of [https://bond.co.za/guides/rates-clearance-certificate-south-africa](https://bond.co.za/guides/rates-clearance-certificate-south-africa); that HTML page is the canonical version of this content.