Legal Challenge looms for Deeds Office’s mandated inclusion of racial, gender, citizenship and nationality information in property transactions.
- In terms of Chief Registrars Circular 3 of 2025 effective from 5 April 2025, a newly introduced Form LLL will be a mandatory component to all transactions lodged in the various Deeds Registries pertaining to land and mortgage bond registration which captures the race, gender, citizenship, nationality and permanent residence status of transferees.
- The Office of the Chief Registrar and Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development have emphasized that the intention is to provide the government with a clearer understanding of land ownership demographics in South Africa in the context of ongoing transformation policies, foreign ownership assessments and land reform initiatives.
- Various organizations have however sought to legally challenge the introduction of the mandatory form requirement and have questioned the legislative basis authorizing the Chief Registrar to compel disclosure of the information and its compatibility with constitutional restraints.
- It has been argued that a limitation to the right to privacy can neither be reasonable nor justifiable when an individual is placed under a legal compulsion to provide such information without the option not to partake in disclosing their personal information
- It has further been argued that the justification provided by the Department for the regulation, being statistical and land audit purposes, cannot be achieved by recording data from land transfers as the landscape will always remain in an ever-changing and ongoing state.
- The integration of demographic data collection into the deeds registration process marks a notable shift in the manner in which land ownership patterns and statistics are recorded and assessed in South Africa. The legality surrounding the implementation of this mandatory component to property transactions however remains to be determined pending the outcome of these legal challenges.
If you have questions, please contact our property team for guidance.
Written by: Conraad van Lill
DKVG Conveyancing Department