Selling an inherited house in South Africa

An inherited house is not yours to sell the day someone dies. It forms part of the deceased estate, which is the deceased's assets and debts, administered by an executor under the supervision of the Master of the High Court. Only the executor (or, in a small estate, the representative named in Letters of Authority) can sign a binding sale of estate property.

Section 13(1) of the Administration of Estates Act says no person may liquidate or distribute a deceased estate except under Letters of Executorship, an endorsement the Act allows, or a direction by the Master. The section does not spell out signing a sale agreement. As we understand it, selling estate property is part of liquidating the estate, and section 47 of the Act deals with sales by an executor, so expect a conveyancer to want the executor's authority in hand before they proceed.

So a beneficiary who is not the appointed executor cannot list the house, accept an offer or sign an offer to purchase for the estate, even if they are the sole heir and everyone agrees on the price. The first step is reporting the estate, not marketing the house.

What the heirs decide. Section 47, as we read it in the consolidation of the Act on the Department of Justice website (a Juta text downloaded 29 May 2025), tells the executor to sell in the manner and on the conditions that the heirs with an interest in the property approve in writing, unless that goes against the will. Where an heir is a minor, an absentee or under curatorship, or the heirs cannot agree on how to sell, the executor sells as the Master approves.

In short, the heirs' written approval comes first, and the Master steps in where they cannot agree or an heir cannot approve for themselves. We read a consolidated text, not the Government Gazette, so ask your conveyancing attorney to confirm the wording in force today before you rely on it.

This is the usual order, not a guarantee. Estates differ, and your conveyancing attorney knows how your Master's office works.

Steps 3 to 7 follow the Act for an estate with an executor. In a small estate (step 2) the Master may dispense with an executor under section 18(3) and give directions on how the estate is liquidated and distributed, so the claims period, the account and the section 47 approvals may not apply as written. Ask which steps apply to your estate.

• Step 1, an interested party, usually a family member: report the death to the Master. The Master's page says to do this at the Master's office where the deceased normally lived, within 14 days. It lists the death notice (Form J294), the original or certified death certificate, all original wills and codicils, and the inventory of assets (Form J243). Where there is no valid will it also asks for a next-of-kin affidavit (Form J192).
• Step 2, the Master: appoints the person who will administer the estate. Above R250 000 the Master issues Letters of Executorship and the full process under the Act applies. At or below R250 000 the Master may dispense with an executor under section 18(3) and issue Letters of Authority to a nominated representative, who administers the estate without the full procedure in the Act (the Master's page).
• Step 3, the executor: advertises for creditors. The notice gives a period for claims of not less than 30 days and not more than 3 months from the latest publication (section 29(1)).
• Step 4, the executor and the heirs: settle how the house is sold. The heirs with an interest approve the manner and conditions in writing, or the Master approves where they cannot agree (section 47, above).
• Step 5, the executor and the buyer: sign the offer to purchase. The executor signs as seller, in that capacity, never as an individual.
• Step 6, the conveyancing attorney: prepares the transfer and the clearance papers. That includes the rates clearance certificate and the compliance certificates (below). On a sale, section 42(2), as we read it, has the executor lodge, with the registration officer, a certificate by the Master that no objection to the transfer exists.
• Step 7, the Deeds Office: registers the transfer to the buyer. The money goes into the estate, not to the heirs. It reaches them through the liquidation and distribution account, which the executor submits after the claims period and which must lie open for inspection for not less than 21 days before the executor pays creditors and distributes (section 35).

We read the Master's certificate in step 6 in the Act and in the Law Society's fee guideline, which prices the application for it as a conveyancing item. We did not find it described on the Master's own page. Ask your conveyancing attorney to confirm that they apply for it, and how long your Master's office takes to issue it.

The same goes for section 47 and the Letters you need: the Act is the source, and an attorney confirms how it works for your estate. To find one, browse conveyancing attorneys on Privately. For the full picture of the three attorneys and the stages of a transfer, read the conveyancing guide.

There are two routes to a sale, and they do not cost the same.

• Sell directly from the estate. The executor signs the sale agreement and the house transfers from the deceased estate to the buyer in one conveyance. This is the route when the heirs want the money, not the house.
• Transfer to the heirs first, then they sell. If the heirs want to keep the house, or time to decide, the executor transfers it into their names as part of winding up the estate. A later sale is then an ordinary sale by the heirs, through conveyancing like any other. It is a second transaction.

The table uses an example house worth R2 000 000, as both the value when it is transferred to the heirs and the price it sells for. Transfer duty is from the 2026/27 table. The conveyancing figures are the Law Society's non-binding guideline fees effective 1 July 2026, which are negotiable, with VAT added. The Deeds Office fees are the statutory fees in operation from 27 March 2026.

On these figures, going through the heirs first adds about R39 711 of guideline and Deeds Office costs before the house is sold again. That is the cost of the extra transfer. It does not change the duty the final buyer pays on the same price. The table does not price time, the section 42(2) wait, the section 47 approvals, the estate's administration costs or any difference in tax, so ask your attorney which route fits the heirs.

Treat the table as a guide to the shape of the costs, not a quote. The Law Society's guideline has no item written for a transfer from an estate to an heir by name. Its general transfer item, column B, covers transfers that no other item names, so we used it, and added the two estate certificate items (Section XI, item 11). Attorneys may charge more or less, and on a different value.

The Deeds Office tariff (Government Notice 7180, item 1(b)) charges a transfer on the purchase price plus any additional consideration, or the fair value of the property, whichever is the greater. A transfer to an heir has no price, so we used the house's value; your attorney confirms the value used. The estate's administration costs and the conveyance to the buyer, which we treat as the same in both routes, are not in the table. Ask for a written quote.

Transferring the house from the deceased estate to an heir or legatee, under a will or on intestacy, is exempt from transfer duty under section 9(1)(e) of the Transfer Duty Act. SARS's Transfer Duty Guide (Issue 6, section 8.2.4) says the exemption also covers a redistribution of the estate's assets among the heirs. It draws the edges of the exemption too:

• It is for heirs and legatees who acquire in that way. It does not apply to property that descendants or others buy from the estate.
• It covers only what the deceased held at death. For a massed estate, where a surviving spouse also transfers their own half share to the children, SARS says the exemption applies only to the half the deceased held. The spouse's own half is subject to transfer duty, and donations tax applies when the children pay nothing or less than the market value of that half.

A buyer from the estate pays transfer duty in the normal way. On a R2 000 000 price, the 2026/27 table gives R33 786, and nothing is payable at or below R1 210 000. The same is true if the heirs take transfer first and sell later: that second sale is an ordinary dutiable sale. The general duty table shows every band.

The exemption is from duty only. The conveyancing attorney's fee and the Deeds Office fees for a transfer to an heir are still payable, and the table above prices them. Your conveyancing attorney confirms whether the exemption applies to your transfer.

Three capital gains tax amounts matter when someone dies owning a house. SARS shows all three on its CGT rates page (updated 26 February 2026), and the 2026 Budget Review tables the same three. We record them as applying from 1 March 2026, the date the Review gives for these thresholds.

The Budget raised the primary residence exclusion from R2 000 000 and the annual exclusion from R40 000. Which amounts apply depends on the date of death and the year of assessment it falls in. Tax years run from 1 March to the end of February. So for a death before 1 March 2026, ask a tax practitioner for the amounts then in force, including the year-of-death exclusion.

The sources do not give one date. The Budget Review gives 1 March 2026, but SARS's Budget 2026 FAQ page, issued on the Minister's announcement of 25 February 2026 and subject to Parliament's legislative process, heads the same exclusions "from 2 March 2026". A death or sale on 1 March 2026 itself is a question for a tax practitioner. We have not confirmed whether these amounts have since been written into the Income Tax Act, or apply for a limited period after the Budget announcement. Ask a tax practitioner which amounts apply to your estate.

Death itself is a capital gains tax event for the deceased, not for the heirs. SARS's Interpretation Note 134 (September 2024) sets out who is treated as doing what. It predates the 2026 amounts, so it explains the rules, not today's rand figures.

Take an invented house, bought for R450 000 and worth R2 000 000 at death. The gain at death is R1 550 000. That is within the R3 000 000 primary residence exclusion, so none of it is taxed if the home qualified as the deceased's primary residence.

An heir who inherits it and later sells for R2 100 000 measures the gain from R2 000 000, so it is R100 000 before costs, improvements and exclusions. A resident surviving spouse who inherits it keeps the R450 000 base cost, so the same sale shows R1 650 000 before the spouse's own exclusions. If the house is the spouse's home and qualifies, the R3 000 000 primary residence exclusion may cover all of it. The roll-over only moves the point at which the gain is tested to the spouse's sale. The heir's step-up is real money, which is why the date-of-death valuation matters.

If the executor sells instead, any gain from the date-of-death value to the sale price is the estate's. A sale close to the valuation leaves little to tax. SARS treats the estate as if it were a natural person for the capital gains annual exclusion (Interpretation Note 134, section 4.2). Which amount that is, and whether the primary residence exclusion also applies when the estate, not an heir, sells the house, are for a tax practitioner to confirm.

For how the exclusions work for a living seller, read capital gains tax when you sell property.

If the house was an asset in a joint estate, the Deeds Registries Act deals with the surviving spouse as well as the executor. We read two of its sections in a private consolidation of the Act (Acts Online). We could not open the official consolidated text, so an attorney should check the wording in force.

Section 45(1) covers a surviving spouse who has lawfully acquired the deceased spouse's share. On the written application of the executor and the surviving spouse, the registrar endorses the title deeds that the survivor may deal with the property as if the deceased spouse's share had been transferred into the survivor's own name. It is a transfer by endorsement. If a bond is registered over the house, the endorsement waits until the bond is cancelled, the share is released from it, or the bondholder consents in writing to the survivor taking over the debt (section 45(2)). The Law Society's fee guideline lists a conveyance under section 45 among its transfers (Section I, A.1).

Section 21 says that in a deed of transfer of an asset in a joint estate, the surviving spouse is joined in their personal capacity with the executor, except in five listed cases. One is where the executor deals only with the deceased spouse's share. Another is where the transfer is in favour of the surviving spouse. So on a sale of a joint-estate house, the survivor may have to be a party to the transfer as well.

We have not confirmed how either section applies to a sale from your estate, which depends on the marriage, the will and how the estate is wound up. Ask your conveyancing attorney.

Two money points come from the sources above. For a massed estate, SARS's Transfer Duty Guide says transfer duty applies when the survivor's own half later passes to the children. We have not confirmed how that applies to your marriage or your will. And a resident surviving spouse who inherits the deceased's half keeps the deceased's base cost for capital gains tax.

The usual papers for a sale are explained in our guides: the compliance certificates (electrical, and gas, electric fence or plumbing where they apply) and the municipality's rates clearance certificate, covered in the rates clearance guide. Your conveyancing attorney confirms which apply when the seller is an estate, and who in the estate arranges them and any repairs needed to get them.

Our voetstoots and disclosure guide explains the duty for ordinary sellers. How it treats an executor's knowledge of the house is for your attorney to confirm. If the executor did not live in or near the house, a beneficiary who knows it can help complete any disclosure accurately.

Besides the figures in the route table, a sale from an estate can carry other costs. The offer to purchase decides who carries each, and who pays transfer costs sets out the usual split.

• A bond over the house. Ask the executor whether one is registered. If it is, the conveyancer settles it from the sale proceeds and the bond is cancelled, as the conveyancing guide describes. The Law Society's fee guideline prices the consent to cancel a bond as its own item, apart from the transfer fee (Section X, item 1(a)).
• Rates, levies and certificates. Arrears and clearance figures are covered in the rates clearance guide, and the certificates in the compliance certificates guide, including who pays for them.
• Estate duty. This is a separate tax on the property of the person who died, not on the sale of the house, and it is separate from capital gains tax and from transfer duty. SARS says it is normally the executor's responsibility to pay it, and the executor calculates it when preparing the liquidation and distribution account. We give no figure here: ask the executor or a tax practitioner whether it applies to this estate.

Under section 47, as we read it, the starting point is the heirs' written approval of how the house is sold. Where they cannot agree, the executor sells as the Master approves. The section does not mention a majority: the Master's approval is what it provides for when the heirs cannot agree. Ask your conveyancing attorney how your Master's office handles it.

Any person interested in the estate, an heir included, may lodge an objection to the executor's liquidation and distribution account with the Master before the inspection period ends, and a person aggrieved by the Master's direction or refusal may apply to court within 30 days (section 35(7) and (10)).

Short of the Master or a court, the options include an independent valuation, a written explanation of why an offer is being accepted and, where family relationships are strained, mediation.

The date-of-death value does two jobs. It is the market value SARS uses for the deemed sale at death, and it is the heir's base cost on a later sale. Section 27(2) of the Act also lets the Master order a property to be appraised, at the estate's expense, if the value in an inventory does not look reasonably correct. A guess, or one agent's opinion, is a weak basis for any of these.

Use the same discipline as any seller: pricing a house from sold prices, not asking prices. A sold-price report, such as the Lightstone reports on Privately (see the samples), is evidence to put beside a valuer's report, not a substitute for one. Keep the valuation on file. Whether the estate uses an agent or sells without one, the executor signs the offer to purchase.

Nobody can give you a reliable total. The Master's page gives no time for issuing Letters or for the whole process, so this guide gives none. What we can give are the periods the Act and the Master's page set for individual steps. The Act's periods are written for an estate with an executor. In a small estate the Master directs how the estate is liquidated (section 18(3)), so ask which of them apply.

These are periods for steps. They do not forecast how long the Master's office takes between them. Add the Master's turnaround, any debts to settle, any missing documents or dispute, and then the ordinary conveyancing process once a buyer is found. Ask the conveyancing attorney which steps must be finished before transfer, and do not set a moving date until they confirm.

If you are the buyer, the sale works as above, with a few points that are yours.

• The seller is the executor. Ask for a copy of the Letters of Executorship or Letters of Authority, and check the name against the offer to purchase before you sign.
• You pay transfer duty. The inheritance exemption is for heirs and does not cover a buyer from the estate (SARS Transfer Duty Guide, section 8.2.4). On a R2 000 000 price that is R33 786 under the 2026/27 table.
• Expect more paper. The executor needs the heirs' written approval or the Master's (section 47), and a transfer on a sale needs the Master's certificate (section 42(2), as we read it). Ask your conveyancing attorney how that affects your dates, and do not plan a move-in date until they confirm them.