---
title: "Rates clearance and levy clearance certificates when selling"
description: "How municipal rates and body corporate levy clearance certificates work: who applies, the months you pay in advance, why they delay transfers, and how to get your credit back."
url: "https://privately.co.za/guides/rates-clearance-certificate-south-africa"
country: "South Africa"
updated: "2026-08-29"
published: "2026-08-29"
author: "Chandre Niemand"
source: "Privately"
---

# Rates clearance and levy clearance certificates when selling

*Chandre Niemand, Founder, Privately. Published: 2026-08-29.*

## Summary

The Deeds Office may not register your transfer without a rates clearance certificate from the municipality, and may not register a sectional title unit without a levy clearance certificate from the body corporate. Your conveyancer applies for both and you pay: the municipality's figures cover arrears plus several months of rates and services billed in advance, and the certificate is then valid for 60 days from issue. The unused advance comes back to you only after registration, only if you apply for the refund, and often only after several months.

## Two certificates, two different laws

Every property transfer in South Africa needs a rates clearance certificate. Section 118(1) of the Local Government: Municipal Systems Act 32 of 2000 forbids the registrar of deeds from registering a transfer without one. The certificate confirms that municipal service fees, surcharges, property rates and other municipal taxes, levies and duties that became due in the two years before the application have been paid in full. Note that the word levies there means municipal levies. It has nothing to do with your body corporate.

If you are selling a sectional title unit you need a second certificate. Section 15B(3) of the Sectional Titles Act 95 of 1986 stops the registrar from registering the transfer of a unit unless a conveyancer certifies that all moneys due to the body corporate by the seller in respect of that unit have been paid, or that provision satisfactory to the body corporate has been made.

A freehold house inside a security estate usually needs a third document: the homeowners association's written consent to transfer. That one is not statutory at all. It comes from a restrictive condition registered in the title deed, so its terms are whatever the estate's founding documents say, and they are often wider than either statute.

**What has to be cleared before the Deeds Office will register**

| Document | Who issues it | Legal basis | What it covers |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Rates clearance certificate | The municipality | Section 118(1), Municipal Systems Act 32 of 2000 | Rates and municipal services for the two years before the application, plus the advance the municipality bills |
| Levy clearance certificate | The body corporate, usually through its managing agent | Section 15B(3), Sectional Titles Act 95 of 1986 | All moneys the owner owes the body corporate in respect of that unit, with no two year cap |
| Consent to transfer | The homeowners association | A restrictive condition in the title deed, not a statute | Whatever the estate's constitution requires: levies, fines, penalties, building deposits |

## Who applies, and the months you pay up front

You do not deal with the municipality yourself. The transferring attorney running the [transfer process](/guides/conveyancing-and-the-transfer-process) applies for clearance figures, the municipality issues an assessment, you pay that amount into the attorney's trust account, the attorney pays the municipality, and the municipality issues the certificate.

The figures are not just your arrears. They include an estimate of rates, water, electricity, sewerage and refuse for a period ahead. The reason is section 118(1A): the certificate is valid for only 60 days from issue. The municipality has to bill far enough forward that nothing new falls due on the property inside that window, and far enough to cover the time you take to pay the assessment in the first place.

How far forward varies by municipality and is not negotiable. Two to six months is the usual band and four months is common, but treat that as an estimate and ask your conveyancer what your municipality actually does before you budget. A household paying R4 000 a month across rates and all services, billed 4 months ahead, has to find R16 000 in cash at a point where it has not yet been paid for the house. That belongs in your [cost of selling](/guides/cost-of-selling-a-house-in-south-africa) from the start, not in a phone call three weeks before registration.

## Why this is the step that delays transfers

Nothing else in a South African transfer depends so completely on an organisation nobody in the deal can manage. Your [compliance certificates](/guides/compliance-certificates-when-selling-a-house) are in your hands. Bond cancellation sits with the bank, which at least works to a known process. Clearance figures are the municipality's, and there is no statutory deadline for producing them: the Municipal Systems Act sets no turnaround time, and most municipalities have no by-law setting one either. What counts as an unreasonable delay is left to the common law, which means the only enforceable answer is a court's.

The failure modes are monotonously consistent, and almost all of them are visible before you list.

- **The account does not match the property.** Wrong owner name, an old ID number, one account spanning two erven, or a subdivision the municipality never split.
- **The meter readings are estimates.** A special reading has to be booked, and it is scheduled rather than instant.
- **There is an unresolved dispute on the account.** Until it is closed out the disputed amount stays in the figures and the transfer waits behind it.
- **The valuation roll moved.** A new general valuation, or an objection still running, can freeze the account.
- **The seller is a deceased estate, a trust or a company.** More documents, more verification, more delay.
- **The certificate expires.** Sixty days pass without registration and the cycle restarts: new figures, a new advance, paid again while the first payment sits as a credit you have not yet reclaimed.

## Historical debt: what the municipality may and may not do

Two judgments settle almost everything a seller needs to know here.

In City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality v Mathabathe the Supreme Court of Appeal held that a municipality must issue the clearance certificate once the debt for the two years preceding the application has been paid. It may not hold the certificate hostage to older debt. If a municipality is refusing to issue on the strength of a balance from a decade ago, it is wrong, and your conveyancer should say so in writing and cite the case.

Section 118(3) is a separate provision and it is stronger than most sellers expect. Municipal charges are a charge upon the property, and that charge ranks ahead of any bond registered over it. For years municipalities argued the charge survived transfer and could be enforced against whoever now owned the house.

In Jordaan v City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality the Constitutional Court closed that down. Section 118(3) is constitutionally valid, but on transfer the new owner is not liable for debt that arose before transfer. The debt stays yours, personally. The municipality can sue you for it, and it can interdict a pending transfer to stop you leaving with the proceeds, but it cannot follow the house into the buyer's hands.

The practical reading: old debt does not block your certificate and does not become your buyer's problem, but it does not evaporate either. Deal with it rather than hoping registration erases it.

## The levy clearance certificate, and why it bites harder

In sectional title the body corporate has an embargo of its own, and it is wider than the municipality's. Section 118(1) is capped at two years. Section 15B(3) is capped at nothing: it reaches all moneys due to the body corporate in respect of the unit, however old.

In Body Corporate of Marsh Rose v Steinmuller the Supreme Court of Appeal treated that embargo as real security rather than an administrative formality, and held that a purchaser at a sale in execution could not compel a reduced figure or go behind what the owner owed. The amount is a matter between the body corporate and its member. So expect the figures to include arrear levies, the CSOS levy, interest and the body corporate's costs of recovery.

Interest may be charged on the authority of a written trustee resolution, at a rate not exceeding the maximum payable under the National Credit Act. Exactly what that maximum works out to for a body corporate has been argued both ways and is not settled, so if the interest line is large, get it checked rather than assuming it is correct.

Special contributions are the trap sellers walk into. Under section 3 of the Sectional Titles Schemes Management Act 8 of 2011, a special contribution is recoverable from the person who owned the unit when the trustees passed the resolution raising it. If a special levy for the roof was resolved in March and you sell in June, it is yours and not your buyer's, and it will appear on the clearance figures whether or not you budgeted for it.

Section 15B(3) does allow the certificate to issue where provision has been made to the satisfaction of the body corporate, so security instead of cash is possible in principle. Marsh Rose is the reminder that the body corporate does not have to accept it. If you genuinely dispute the amount, the Community Schemes Ombud Service is the right forum, but a CSOS adjudication takes months and will not move your registration date. The usual course is to pay under protest in writing, take the certificate, and pursue the dispute afterwards. Get an attorney to word the protest, because that wording is what preserves the claim.

## Getting your money back afterwards

The advance you paid sits as a credit on your municipal account. Registration does not release it.

The Deeds Office record changes on the day of registration. The municipality's billing record does not. Until the municipality processes the change of ownership, closes your account and reconciles it, there is nothing to refund. That reconciliation is routinely the slowest part of the entire sale, and several months is normal rather than exceptional.

The refund is also not automatic. You apply for it. Most municipalities want a written request, proof of the payment of the clearance figures, the registration date and property description, a bank confirmation letter in your name and a copy of your identity document.

- Diarise the refund application for the week after registration. Nobody else is going to do it for you.
- Keep the receipt for the clearance payment. It is the document the refunds department asks for, and the one sellers cannot find a year later.
- Check what months the advance covers before you cancel or keep your monthly debit order. Paying the advance and the monthly account for the same period means claiming both back.
- Expect municipal bills to keep arriving after registration. Do not ignore them. Reply in writing with the registration date and the title deed details, and keep the reference number.
- In sectional title the levy account is normally apportioned to the registration date and settled through the conveyancer, and bodies corporate refund far faster than municipalities do.

## How to chase a slow municipality

There is no magic escalation, only a sequence that works more often than complaining does. It starts long before you have a buyer.

- **Fix the account before you list.** Confirm the owner name and ID are correct, that meters are being read rather than estimated, and that no dispute is open. Each of those takes days to fix before a sale and weeks during one.
- **Apply for figures the moment the sale is unconditional.** Waiting for the bond grant to land before starting the clearance application costs weeks you cannot recover, and the 60 day clock only starts once the certificate issues.
- **Put every query in writing and get a reference number.** Section 95(f) of the Municipal Systems Act requires a municipality to provide accessible mechanisms to query accounts and appeal procedures giving prompt redress for inaccurate accounts. A written query with a reference number is what makes that provision usable later.
- **Escalate inside the municipality, in writing.** Revenue or the rates clearance department first, then the responsible manager, then the municipal manager's office. Dated emails beat call centre conversations that leave no trace.
- **Have your conveyancer send a formal demand.** Firms doing volume transfers have direct contacts in clearance departments, and an attorney's letter citing Mathabathe moves a file that a call centre will not.
- **Complain to the Public Protector.** Maladministration by a municipality falls squarely within its mandate. It is slow, but it creates an official record you can point at.
- **Apply to court to compel issue.** A mandamus is expensive and rare, but it exists and it is precisely what Mathabathe was. Take proper legal advice at this point, not before.

## Frequently asked questions

### What is a rates clearance certificate in South Africa?

It is a certificate from the municipality confirming that rates and municipal service charges on a property have been paid. Section 118(1) of the Municipal Systems Act 32 of 2000 prohibits the registrar of deeds from registering a transfer without it, so no property in South Africa can change hands until it is issued.

### How long is a rates clearance certificate valid?

Sixty days from the date it is issued, under section 118(1A) of the Municipal Systems Act. If the transfer does not go through inside that window the certificate lapses, new figures must be applied for, and a fresh advance must be paid.

### How many months of rates do you pay in advance when selling?

It varies by municipality and is not negotiable. Two to six months is the usual band and four months is common. The advance exists because the certificate is only valid for 60 days, so the municipality bills far enough ahead that nothing new falls due before registration. Ask your conveyancer for your municipality's actual practice before you budget.

### Do you get the rates clearance advance back?

Yes, but only the unused portion, only after registration, and only if you apply. The refund is not automatic. You submit a written request with proof of the clearance payment, the registration details, a bank confirmation letter and your identity document. Several months from registration to payout is normal.

### Can a municipality refuse a clearance certificate over old debt?

No. In City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality v Mathabathe the Supreme Court of Appeal held that once the debt for the two years preceding the application is paid, the municipality must issue the certificate. Older debt remains the seller's personal debt and the municipality can sue for it, but it cannot be used to block the certificate.

### Is the buyer liable for the seller's old municipal debt after transfer?

No. In Jordaan v City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality the Constitutional Court held that the section 118(3) charge on the property does not survive transfer against the new owner. Debt incurred before transfer stays with the person who incurred it.

### Who pays for the rates and levy clearance certificates?

The seller. Both certificates confirm that the seller's account is settled, so the seller funds the arrears, the advance and any administration fee the municipality or managing agent charges. The conveyancer collects the money and pays it across.

## Sources

- [Local Government: Municipal Systems Act 32 of 2000 (gov.za)](https://www.gov.za/documents/local-government-municipal-systems-act)
- [Sectional Titles Act 95 of 1986 (gov.za)](https://www.gov.za/documents/sectional-titles-act-17-sep-1986-0000)
- [Sectional Titles Schemes Management Act 8 of 2011 (gov.za)](https://www.gov.za/documents/sectional-titles-schemes-management-act)
- [Jordaan and Others v City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality and Others [2017] ZACC 31 (SAFLII)](https://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZACC/2017/31.html)
- [City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality v Mathabathe and Another [2013] ZASCA 60 (SAFLII)](https://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZASCA/2013/60.html)
- [Body Corporate of Marsh Rose v Steinmuller and Others [2023] ZASCA 143 (SAFLII)](https://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZASCA/2023/143.html)

## Related guides

- [Conveyancing and the property transfer process](https://privately.co.za/guides/conveyancing-and-the-transfer-process)
- [Compliance certificates you need to sell a house in South Africa](https://privately.co.za/guides/compliance-certificates-when-selling-a-house)
- [What it really costs to sell a house in South Africa](https://privately.co.za/guides/cost-of-selling-a-house-in-south-africa)
- [Sectional title vs freehold in South Africa](https://privately.co.za/guides/sectional-title-vs-freehold-south-africa)

---

Figures verified 2026-08-12. General information about South African property practice, not legal or financial advice.

Source: Privately, https://privately.co.za/guides/rates-clearance-certificate-south-africa