Every certificate you need to sell — and which ones Cape Town adds

The short version

Those inspection fees are the small part. On an older home the repair work an inspector finds is routinely several times the cost of the certificate itself, and it is the single most common reason a seller’s net figure comes in below what they expected.

Electrical Certificate of Compliance

Legally required on every sale in South Africa, without exception. It must be issued by a registered person, it covers the fixed electrical installation, and it is valid for two years — provided no work has been done on the installation since it was issued.

If you have a valid certificate less than two years old and nothing has changed, you can hand it over. In practice most buyers’ attorneys want a fresh one, and most sellers find it easier to get one than to argue about it.

Common failures on older northern suburbs homes: no earth leakage, DB board wiring that has been added to over the years without being brought up to standard, outside plugs without proper weatherproofing, and pool or borehole pumps wired informally.

The water certificate — the Cape Town one

This is the certificate that surprises sellers who have sold elsewhere in the country. The City of Cape Town’s water by-law requires a certificate confirming the water installation complies before a property in the metro can transfer. Sellers in most other municipalities do not need one.

The inspection typically covers whether storm water is discharging correctly, whether there are any cross connections, whether the water meter registers when everything is closed, and whether the geyser installation complies. Every suburb covered on this site — Milnerton, Edgemead, Bothasig, Plattekloof, Monte Vista, Welgelegen, Parow North, Goodwood, Richwood, Summer Greens, Century City and Burgundy Estate — falls inside the City of Cape Town, so it applies to all of them.

Gas Certificate of Conformity

Required wherever there is a fixed gas installation: a gas hob, a gas geyser, a built-in braai, a fixed bottle installation. A portable bottle attached to a free-standing appliance generally does not trigger it, but the line is not always obvious and the inspector is the one who decides.

The usual failures are bottle positioning relative to windows, doors and boundary walls, and pipework that was installed by someone who was not registered.

Electric fence system certificate

Required where an electric fence is installed. Worth knowing: the certificate attaches to the installation rather than to the sale, so a valid existing certificate can simply be handed over — you do not automatically need a new one for every transfer if nothing has changed.

Beetle certificate — customary, not compulsory

There is no national law requiring a beetle or borer certificate. It became standard practice in the coastal Western Cape because of the local risk to timber, and it is now written into the standard Offer to Purchase used by most agencies here.

Which means that in practice it usually is required — not by legislation, but by the contract you are about to sign. If it is in the OTP, it is binding. It is negotiable at the point of drafting the offer, and occasionally a buyer will waive it on a home with no accessible timber.

Who pays?

By default and by convention, the seller. Both the certificates and any remedial work needed to obtain them. This is negotiable in the Offer to Purchase and occasionally shifts, but a buyer agreeing to take on unknown electrical repairs is rare.

How to keep this from costing you more than it should

1. Book the electrical inspection before you list, not after you accept an offer.
2. Use your own inspector rather than one appointed under time pressure at the end of the deal.
3. Get a written quote for remedial work before authorising it, and get a second quote if it is over about R10 000.
4. Keep every certificate and invoice — the buyer’s attorney will ask, and a tidy file makes the transfer faster.
5. If you have had electrical work done recently, find the certificate for it. It may save you a repeat.