A key data source is population register data from Home Affairs which includes data on the status of beneficiaries.

HSS beneficiary data can be cross referenced against Home Affairs data to determine whether beneficiaries are alive, what their current marital status is and in some cases, access data on children.

At present housing authorities do not have access to Home Affairs data and must purchase this data from credit bureaus or other third parties.

It is critical to engage with affected households about the process prior to fieldwork. This process provides an opportunity to explain why occupancy surveys are necessary, how the data will be used and what happens during the property transfer process.

Step 1: Meeting with community leaders / councilors

It can be useful to secure the support of local leaders and councilors for the process. At the start of the project the project manager or other senior team member from the housing authority should accompany the fieldwork team lead to meet with leaders and explain the process.

Step 2: Meeting with the community

Where possible, a community meeting should be held to inform residents about the enumeration process and to give them an opportunity to ask questions

Along with residents of the community, representatives from local government as well as local area committees should be in attendance to ensure participation and buy-in

Information must be provided about:

• The purpose of the survey,

• Expected timelines associated with fieldwork

• The organisations responsible for data collection and processing,

• The type of data will be collected.

Checklists and Fieldworker Support Documents

It is useful to provide a document checklist indicating which documents will be requested and photographed so that respondents can have these documents on hand during the enumeration.

A standard household document checklist is provided here Data Collection

A printed letter containing this information should be handed out during the community meeting. Community leaders and neighbours should be asked to give the letter to those who were not in attendance.

Step 3: Participation in the survey

When fieldworkers visit each property, they provide respondents with a printed letter on an official letterhead introducing the fieldworker, outlining the purpose of the survey, the type of data to be collected and documents that will be requested and photographed

The printed letter should be made available in the local language/s so that respondents understand the information contained therein.

An example of such a letter is provided under additional resources:

Fieldworkers need to take respondents through the contents of the letter and ensure that it is well understood.

The Toolkit

The beneficiary administration & transfer toolkit is specifically designed to assist housing authorities with the primary transfer of subsidy properties to validated owners in delayed transfer projects.

The process outlined in the toolkit presumes there are no counter-signed sale agreements for the properties in the project.

The toolkit envisages an optimised environment that enables the administration of beneficiaries and occupants to be done securely and efficiently. That environment does not yet exist. Key processes that rely on as yet to be developed infrastructure or information sharing Memoranda of Understanding are flagged as suggestions for improvement as part of a Maturity Roadmap. Solutions that can be used in the interim are included in the toolkit.

The toolkit is based on the experience of the Transaction Support Centre (TSC) in Makhaza, Khayelitsha. The TSC was directly and materially assisted by Stefan Grobler and Coenraad Calitz of Tenure Administration and Transfers in the City of Cape Town's Human Settlements Directorate. Without their input and guidance the compilation of this toolkit and the work of the TSC on primary transfers in Makhaza would not have been possible.

The development of this toolkit was funded by a grant from National Treasury's Cities Support Programme, through GTAC and was developed by the Transaction Support Centre (TSC) which operates with support from the Oppenheimer Generations Foundation.

The TSC is a joint-initiative of research consultancy 71point4 and the Centre for Affordable Housing Finance in Africa (CAHF).

This site is an interactive document that allows you to move between sections in various ways. You can view text sequentially using the links at the end of the page (grey block labelled 'Next'). You can use the links provided on a page to navigate directly to a specific section, or you can use the menu items on the left to rapidly move to the section or sub-section (expand main section heading) that you are interested in.

Where relevant, additional comments are provided in attention blocks, for example:

The entire toolkit can be exported as a pdf document if required, although the online interactive version is preferred, as it is a living document that will be updated as policies, capabilities, systems and processes mature.

Feedback on the information set out in this document can be sent to: illana@71point4.com

Please include the full web page address of the section that you are providing feedback on

In many cases, the current occupants and self-classified owners of the properties will not be the original beneficiary/ies. Housing authorities will need to exercise discretion in how they deal with complex cases. While it is impossible to list out all possible scenarios, there are a number of principles that can guide how these complex cases are dealt with.

Principle 1: Avoid evictions

A primary objective of the titling programme is to strengthen formal property markets and to enable subsidy houses to become administratively visible and bankable.

While Section 10A of the Housing Act requires beneficiaries to obtain permission from the Provincial Department of Human Settlements before selling their properties, in practice this is seldom adhered to, particularly where transfer has been delayed. While this implies that these transactions are illegal and should be overturned with purchasers evicted by the province, this is simply not a feasible approach. In the first instance, the current legislation governing evictions is complex for the evicting party to navigate. It is also by no means clear that these evictions would be upheld by the courts given that the administrative failure of the State has, in part, created the conditions for informal property market transactions to be widely adopted.

Beyond this, evictions would destablise communities and undermine the objectives of the titling programme; occupants who have purchased informally are unlikely to participate in a process that will result in their eviction. Evictions would also undermine the functioning of formal property markets.

Therefore, where there has been an informal sale, the housing authority should contact beneficiaries to confirm that the sale, in fact, took place. Where there is no dispute, the housing authority should facilitate the transfer of the property to the buyer.

Principle 2: Don't prejudice beneficiaries because transfer has been delayed

Beneficiaries should not be prejudiced as a result in the delay in transfer, which is not of their making. This principle has clear ramifications. For instance, in the case of a marriage in community of property subsequent to the subsidy award, the property should be transferred to the beneficiary and the new spouse, even if the new spouse does not qualify for a subsidy. Likewise, where a beneficiary dies, transfer should proceed to the surviving spouse irrespective of his or her subsidy status. Where there is a divorce, the property should be transferred in line with the divorce order.

Principle 3: A subsidy is not a real right (i.e. not a legally registerable land right)

Unlike property ownership which is a real right that can be registered and transferred, a subsidy is not. This means that housing authorities have some flexibility when the original beneficiary is not in occupation, and can make a determination on who to transfer to. It is important that cases are adjudicated in a way that is procedurally fair and that housing authorities can justify decisions they have taken in the event these are appealed.

Principle 4: The household's perspective matters

While a subsidy is not a real right, from the perspective of those who regard themselves as owning subsidy properties, this legal fact is not terribly material. They regard themselves as owners, have often invested in the property as if they were owners in law and are recognised as owners by others in the community. For the titling programme to succeed, housing authorities should respect the ownership arrangements that have emerged in the absence of title, and seek to formalise them where these are uncontested.

Principle 5: Make reasonable attempts to locate the original beneficiary if he or she is not in occupation

Where beneficiaries are still alive but are not in occupation, the housing authority must attempt to locate the beneficiary before transferring the property to current occupants. This might include trying to trace the beneficiary through credit bureaus, banks or SASSA or advertising in the media (including social media). It is important to retain evidence of these attempts so that the authority can demonstrate its efforts if these are called into question by beneficiaries who come forward after the property has been transferred to other parties.

Principle 6: Make it as easy as possible to regularise ownership

There are a number of practical suggestions that flow from this:

• Enable more households to qualify for subsidies: The maximum income threshold for subsidy qualification should be increased from R3 500 to R15 000 to account for the passage of time between allocation of the property and transfer.

• Where the occupant-owner cannot qualify for a subsidy, and must purchase the property from the housing authority, the sales price should be set as low as possible so that the price is affordable and does not discourage the formalisation of ownership. In addition, given that there is some variance in the quality of top structures on the properties, the price should be for the land only. While each housing authority has some discretion, this toolkit recommends a fixed price of R15 000.

• Where households do not qualify because they earn more than R15 000, enable households to apply for FLISP subsidies in order to purchase the property from the housing authority and pay for the transfer. The maximum income to qualify for the FLISP is R22 000.

• Where a waiver or no-objection letter is required to facilitate the formalisation of an informal sale that has already taken place, these should be granted as a matter of course by the provincial human settlements department on request from the project manager of a titling project and without the need for a formal waiver application.

The first step in the process is to collate available data on the project and project beneficiaries. This data is augmented with data collected from an occupancy survey, during which each property is visited by an enumerator who asks a series of questions to determine who is currently living in the property and who the current occupant perceives to be the owner of the property.

This information is used to categorise cases and determine a pathway to transfer. In some cases extensive preparatory work is required to validate ownership claims and comply with the conditions necessary for the transfer of a subsidy property.

Once it is clear who the property should be transferred to, the housing authority or its conveyancers prepare a sale agreement with the 'buyers' to whom the property will be transferred. This document specifies the seller (the housing authority who is authorised to transfer the property), the names and ID number of the buyers, a description of the property and a notional value of the property.

The sale agreement that is signed by the 'buyers' is returned to the housing authority for signature. The housing authority countersigns the sale agreement and returns the signed document together with supporting documentation to the conveyancer. The conveyancer prepares the transfer documents for signature by the housing authority. Once these documents are signed, the conveyancer can apply for additional certificates necessary for transfer and the transfer can be lodged by the conveyancer at the deeds registry.

The deeds registry will notify the conveyancer when the title deed is ready for collection.

High Level Process

The experiences of the Transaction Support Centre (TSC) underpin the creation of this toolkit and have surfaced many learnings and opportunities for optimisation in the primary transfer process for subsidy properties in delayed transfer projects. New opportunities for improvement and learning will no doubt arise as circumstances change and as official engage with this toolkit and the process.

A number of identified enablers are described in broad terms below.

Short-term Improvements

There are several improvements that can be implemented relatively easily to create efficiencies in the primary transfer process. These include:

• GIS platform

• Title deed track and trace system (digital)

• Revised delayed transfer policy aligned with guiding principles

• Expedited waiver application process for delayed transfer properties

• HSS API access

• Subsidy and beneficiary administration accreditation

• Department of Home Affairs API access

• Deeds data API access

• SASSA data access

• Data warehouse containing occupant, beneficiary, property and subsidy-level data

Longer-term Improvements

The longer-term improvements include:

• Early integration with municipal property value chain (i.e. once ownership is validated, not necessarily registered)

• Relaxation of the requirement for rates clearance certificate on delayed primary transfers

• MoU with the Department of Justice for deceased estates

• Workflow automation and integration with conveyancers

• Automated reporting

Systemic Improvements

These require regulatory reform to ease critical constraints that arise from existing regulations including:

• Housing Act

• Administration of Estates Act

• Alienation of land Act

• Deeds registries Act

This maturity roadmap can be visually displayed, as per the schema below:

Occupants and beneficiaries

Community

At the start of the enumeration process, the community must be made aware that enumerators will be going door to door in the area to collect data to enable the property transfer process. This may include informative meetings or distribution of notices in other media to let the community know what is happening and why. This step is aimed at getting community support for the project.

Media

A summary of stakeholders and their roles across the process is illustrated in the Stakeholder Matrix below using the RACI framework. This framework identifies stakeholders who are either responsible for completing a task, accountable for ensuring the task gets done, consulted to get feedback or because the work will impact directly on them, or informed about the process and outcomes.

Stakeholders include:

• Members of the public

• Various government departments

• Private sector players

• The project team

Each stakeholder category is described in more detail:

Banks

This is an optional stakeholder that may be engaged in some cases. Housing Authorities may wish to partner with banks to trace or locate missing beneficiaries during the validation process.

In addition, the regularisation process may require non-qualifiers to pay the Housing Authority to formalise an informal purchase. Some households may require finance from a bank or other lender to raise required funds.

Credit Bureau

This is an optional stakeholder that may be engaged in some cases to trace or locate missing beneficiaries during the validation process.

Conveyancer

The conveyancer is required by law to lodge the transfer. The conveyancer prepares transfer documents, lodges the matter with the deeds office, collects the issued title deed, confirm that all details on the title deed are correct and rectifies any errors prior to handover to the owner.

Housing Authority

The Housing Authority is the provincial or municipal entity (typically in the Human Settlements Department) that is accountable for the entire outcome of the process. That means that they have oversight over all the actors that are responsible for any step of the process and must hold them to account for key outcomes. The Housing Authority also makes decisions and offers guidance when required through all process phases.

HSS

The list of project beneficiaries is recorded on the Human Settlement System (HSS). This data must be extracted off the HSS during the data collection phase of the project.

In addition, new subsidy applications that are made during the process will go through the HSS.

Department of Home Affairs

SASSA

This is an optional stakeholder that may be engaged where the process requires it. SASSA data may be useful to assist housing authorities in tracing and contacting beneficiaries during the validation phase. Ideally there should be an agreement (such as a Memorandum of Understanding) between the Housing Authority and SASSA on how beneficiary tracing will be conduced.

Local councillor

It is useful to have the support of local councillors who can assist with engaging the community at the start of the Data Collection phase of the project and support awareness raising activities that are conducted within the community about the project. In addition, the local councillor may wish to stay informed about progress throughout the project.

Deeds Office

The Deeds Office is engaged once the property is read for transfer as a final steps in the Validation, Regularisation & Transfer phase.

Department of Justice - Master's Office

When one or more beneficiaries is deceased, the estate must be reported to the master's office.

Various enablers must be in place to result in the primary transfer of a property to subsidy beneficiaries.

Stakeholder Engagement

The process described in the toolkit is not self-contained within the housing authority. It requires the active participation and collaboration of a number of other stakeholders including government departments across spheres of government (local, provincial and national) and private entities. Some of these stakeholders provide information or data (e.g. occupant households, other government departments), enable critical processes that provide a pathway to transfer (e.g. the Department of Justice with regard to deceased estates, provincial departments of human settlements with regard to application for subsidies) or participate directly in the property transfer process (e.g. conveyancers, deeds registry). It is very important that there is engagement with these stakeholders so that the roles that they play within the process are understood and supported as needed.

Key stakeholders are described in more detail in the Stakeholder Matrix.

Project Team

• Project managers who oversee titling projects, examine evidence of ownership and authorise signature of, or sign, sale agreements,

• Analysts who review and analyse data to determine the pathway to transfer

• Case administrators who follow up on cases

The team is supported by a number of service providers including:

• Fieldwork teams

• Conveyancers

In addition, the process requires that the housing authority establish:

• An adjudication panel

• An appeals panel

Maturity Journey

The toolkit presumes the development over time of an optimised environment that enables the secure and efficient administration of beneficiaries and transfer of properties to validated owners.

The experience of the Transaction Support Centre and the City of Cape Town demonstrates that it is possible to undertake this work in a less than optimal environment, albeit less efficiently, and with significantly more stress on the teams who undertake the work. Given that this work becomes harder to do the longer it is delayed, it is critical that it begins as soon as possible, even if processes and systems are not optimised.

That said, there are some requirements without which it is simply not feasible to commence the work. This includes the existence of a registered general plan, access to data from the HSS on the project beneficiaries, a dedicated project team and a rudimentary system to maintain data as it is collected.

In the longer term, there are specific interventions that would optimise the process significantly. This journey towards an optimised process supported by good systems is called the Maturity Roadmap.

Key Metrics

The process should have key metrics measured so that the outcomes can be reported to stakeholders. Metrics include descriptive, throughput and cost metrics. Examples include

• Number of properties to be transferred

• Number of households enumerated

• Number of households eligible to sign sale agreements

• Number of sales agreements signed by households

• Number of sales agreements countersigned by housing authority

• Number of transfers lodged by conveyancers

• Number of properties registered

• Number of title deeds issued by the deeds registry

• Number of title deeds checked

• Number of title deeds with errors

• Number of title deeds handed out to property owners

• Number of wills signed

• Number of households where a non-qualifier is the perceived owner

• Number of estate late transfers

• Number of informal sales

• Number of renter / caretaker households

• Number of properties where ownership is disputed

• Average time taken from enumeration to title deed registration: self-classified owner = beneficiary (perfect match)

• Average time taken from from household signature of sales agreement to deeds registration

• Cost per household survey (including software, service provider, data etc.)

• Conveyancing costs per transfer

• Monthly operating costs: Project team

Data Management

During the process, data and digital artefacts (images of documents) are collected from multiple sources including the HSS, occupancy surveys, home affairs and the deeds office. This data must be structured and analysed in order to identify a pathway to transfer.

Project Team

The project team includes employees at the Housing Authority who are responsible for extracting, collating and overseeing the collecting data process, categorising, validating and following up on cases, preparing and signing sales agreements, engaging and managing conveyancers and handing out title deeds.

Ideally a dedicated, experienced team should conduct these activities. While the team structure and size may vary depending on the number of projects and properties to be transferred, it will typically include the following roles:

Team manager: Responsible for signing sale agreements, accountable for the process and the performance of the team and all service providers

Data manager: Responsible for extracting, collating and collecting all data required to support the process. Accountable for the performance of fieldwork teams who conduct occupancy surveys. The data manager is responsible for ensuring that all data is safely secured and accessible for analysis

Data analyst: Responsible for analysing data to categorise cases, preparing reports on throughput

Case worker: Responsible for following up on cases and ensuring that all necessary processes are followed to enable property transfer

Identify other internal records

In some cases, project managers may have spreadsheets containing data on individuals allocated to a site once the development is underway or complete.

These additional sources of data can be useful where occupants are not beneficiaries (as when non-qualifiers were allocated to subsidy units in the case of informal settlement upgrading projects) or where HSS records are not accurate (for instance, HSS data may not have been updated when beneficiaries were removed from the project).

Before using this data, the housing authority should establish how it was collected, how well it was maintained and how accurate it is.

Another key data set is deeds data which will allow officials to identify beneficiaries who own or have owned properties, the location of the property, the seller of the property and the date of transfer

This data is useful as a cross check in case beneficiaries were allocated a property in another project

Beneficiaries may have come to own property after receiving a subsidy. In this case, that they own a property should not disqualify them from transfer.

At the start of the beneficiary administration process for primary transfers, it is useful to access other data that can help determine the status and / or whereabouts of beneficiaries.

This provides advance warning of the likely challenges that will emerge during the process, and can be useful for resource planning and contracting with conveyancers and other third parties.

It is also critical to validate data obtained from respondents interviewed during occupancy surveys.

There are two key data sources:

1. Home affairs data

2. Deeds registry data

At the start of the beneficiary administration process for primary transfers, existing data on beneficiaries must be extracted from various databases and collated. The key steps associated with this process include:

1. Step 1: Extract data on project beneficiaries from the HSS

2. Step 2: Identify Additional Project Records

3. Step 3: Enrich Data

   • Home Affairs Data

   • Deed Registry Data

4. Step 4: Secure Data in Database

Get project beneficiaries from HSS

Extract data from the HSS in CSV format. Only demographic data should be exported from the system. Follow the steps below to gather the requisite information.

1. Visit the HSS online

2. Access the project list page

3. Locate specific project list

4. Export the project beneficiaries ID number list for that project

For all erven in the project site, extract existing records of property ownership from the deeds registry. If any properties within the project site have already been transferred to individual property owners, these properties would obviously be excluded from the titling project.

As more information is gathered it is critical that the data is curated properly. There are currently no systems for storing data and the data is typically saved on various spreadsheets maintained by various users who save and edit the data without adhering to any protocols. This makes it very difficult to link beneficiaries to properties or occupants to beneficiaries and to determine the pathway to transfer and next steps.

Nevertheless, even in the absence of a system to store and analyse data, the housing authority must ensure that the data is secured and accessible to authorised project team members only.

As more information is gathered it is critical that the data is curated properly. There are currently no systems for storing data and the data is typically saved on various spreadsheets maintained by various users who save and edit the data without adhering to any protocols. This makes it very difficult to link beneficiaries to properties or occupants to beneficiaries and to determine the pathway to transfer and next steps.

Nevertheless, even in the absence of a system to store and analyse data, the housing authority must ensure that the data is secured and accessible to authorised project team members only.

During the data collection and validation process, the housing authority extracts and gathers data on beneficiaries, occupants and properties.

During this stage of the process the housing authority will

The project general plan will be required by the fieldwork team who will use it to plan how the team gathers data as they conduct the occupancy survey. These plans exist in hard copy and digital format for use on a GIS platform.

This data is associated with beneficiaries/properties on the HSS and is required during the transfer process by conveyancers when they submit applications for rates clearance certificates - also required as your 'sale price' in the sale agreement.

The data can be extracted at a project level by a standard query on the online.

At the start of the project existing project level and property level data must be collected. The key steps associated with this process include:

2. associated with each property on the project

4. about property and subsidy data

Fieldworkers can use tablets or smartphones to collect data. Depending on the project requirements, the hardware will either be provided by the enumerators themselves or rented out by the fieldwork management team.

Where fieldworkers use their own devices, fieldwork managers must ensure that the camera is working and can take clear photographs and that the phone can capture GPS coordinates. Settings for both can be adjusted by fieldwork managers for optimal results.

A critical step in the process is to collect data on the occupants of subsidy dwellings by means of an occupancy survey.

What is an occupancy survey?

An occupancy survey is a door-to-door site visit to each affected property (i.e. where no primary transfer has occurred yet) to establish:

1. Who currently lives on the property.

2. The perceived tenure status of the current occupant (own, rent, caretaker, other).

3. For those who regard themselves as owners, how and when they came to own the property.

4. For those who do not regard themselves as owners, who is regarded as the owner of the property.

Hiring and contracting

• Number of fieldworkers required depends on the timeline of the project and capacity of the project team (number of surveys in the study and the number of fieldwork supervisors available)

• Some candidates may drop out at various stages of the process (recruitment, interviews, training and fieldwork). Therefore the project team should recruit, interview and train a larger number of fieldworkers than will be required so that there will be a sufficient number of individuals remaining to conduct surveys

• Different contracts should be put in place depending on the project role (i.e. fieldworker, supervisor, manager or data monitor) and their responsibilities (i.e. working hours, remuneration, training bonus, performance bonus)

Remuneration

• There are two main remuneration models that can be utilised for fieldworkers / enumerators:

  • Fieldworkers are paid per completed and approved survey

    • An expected average rate is to complete between 5 to 7 surveys a day

    • Payment per survey is recommended between R37 to R52 to align to StatsSA rates

  • Fieldworkers are paid per specified time period (daily, weekly, monthly)

    • The current rate paid by Stats SA for census enumerators is R260 per day

• Survey collection is expected to go through an initial slow start up phase, a peak and then a drop off driven by the availability and co-operation of the community. Once most surveys are completed, it normally becomes more difficult to complete the ones that are left. This should be taken into account for remuneration.

Traditional Paper and Pencil Interviewing (PAPI) data collection methodologies where enumerators fill in a paper form or questionnaire to be captured at a later stage are error-prone and inefficient and must not be used.

In contrast, CAPI-based platforms prompt enumerators to ask the right questions to the right households. The software also allows for better monitoring of enumerator activities and obviates the need for data capture.

There are several CAPI platforms available with slight differences in pricing and functionality. There is some flexibility to choose the platform, as long as the platform supports the following functionalities:

1. Real-time data monitoring and feedback to enumerators and field supervisors so that errors can be picked up and corrected immediately. (e.g. valid GPS coordinates, duration of survey, spelling of names, good quality images)

2. Complex data coding requirements such as:

   • Looping (e.g. questions repeated for each owner)

   • Piping (e.g. respondent who self-classifies as a renter only answers questions relating to tenancy arrangements rather than proof of ownership)

   • Automated validation checks (e.g. valid 13 digit ID number)

3. Capturing of GPS coordinates (e.g. location of property) during the interview process

4. Capturing of images (e.g. ID book, marriage certificate) during the interview process

5. Real-time fieldwork management (e.g. number of surveys submitted per enumerator per day, automatic quota tracking)

6. Both online and offline data collection (e.g. enumerators can conduct interviews when offline with the ability to upload their results when they have a strong / stable internet connection)

7. Data storage and retention

8. API access to underlying data

The occupancy survey gathers data and supporting documents on a number of aspects relating to ownership and occupancy. The basic structure of the occupancy survey questionnaire is illustrated below

Detailed information is gathered on those who claim to own the property, including:

• Full name and Nationality

• Identity number

• Contact detail

• Marital status

In addition, images of key documents are captured

These images are used to cross-check and validate the information provided by respondents and could be used to support the transfer process. These documents include:

• ID books

• Marriage certificate

• Divorce orders

• Death certificates

• Masters Letters of Authority

In some instances, an external service provider may be contracted to undertake some or all aspects of the enumeration (such as fieldworker recruitment and hiring, training, fieldwork, data monitoring and fieldwork management)

Major roles in the fieldwork team

Project Manager

• This is the main liaison between the project team and the municipality or province

• Performs general oversight and management of project team and project processes

Community Engagement Manager

• Manages the relationships between the communities and local area committees to ensure participation and buy-in

• In-field monitoring and support for fieldwork team

Fieldwork Manager

• Performs general oversight and management of fieldwork supervisors, fieldworkers and data monitors

  • Device set-up and data management

  • Daily allocation of fieldworkers to households

  • Monitoring of fieldwork performance

• Performs final sign-off on data collected and checked by data monitors

Fieldwork Supervisors

• Provides infield assistance and support for core fieldwork team

• Conducts quality assurance / "call back" surveys

• The number of field supervisors required depends on the number of fieldworks - usually one supervisor is allocated to 5-10 fieldworkers

Fieldworkers / Enumerators

• Perform enumeration / data collection

• Act as witnesses to sale agreements

Data Monitors

• Conduct data quality control checks for submitted surveys

Data collection takes place at the property with a knowledgeable adult who lives there. The survey should take approximately 30 minutes to complete. In some cases, fieldworkers will be requested to return to the property where data appears to be unreliable, or where data is missing.

General Advice

Where possible, fieldworkers should move from area to area in small groups, each managed by a fieldwork supervisor on the ground – this ensures safety in numbers as well as efficiency in covering the study area

There may be instances where residents refuse to participate in the study or are not available during the time fieldwork is conducted:

• Fieldworkers must make at least three attempts to revisit absent households during the course of the study at different times of the day and on different days of the week.

• If after three attempts the household could still not be reached, the fieldworker should leave a letter for the household asking them to come to the project office or to call the enumerator to schedule an appointment

• Surveys that are incomplete or that appear to be unreliable (where inconsistent or unrealistic responses are provided) will not be accepted and fieldworkers will be required to return to respondents to complete and verify data

• Where images are of poor quality or data captured by the enumerator does not match up with data on the images, these surveys must be returned to the enumerator for correction

• Data monitors must work closely with the fieldwork manager and fieldwork supervisors to ensure that fieldworkers perform their jobs meticulously

• It is not realistic to expect a 100% survey coverage and completeness rate, a recommended target rate is 85% or above

Data Collection Checks

In order to ensure that the data is of high quality it must be checked by data monitors. Some common things to check include:

• GPS co-ordinates Do GPS co-ordinates make sense? (i.e. was the survey conducted where it should have been conducted)

• Duration of survey Does the duration of the survey make sense? (i.e. not too short or too long)

• Spelling of names and surnames Check against the submitted ID documents, marriage documents etc. (if available)

• Correct identity numbers Check against the submitted ID documents, marriage documents etc. (if available)

• Where there are no photographs to review, check for the validity of the ID number using a formula

• Beneficiary details Check that the beneficiary profiles make sense in the context of the survey (relationship to the current occupant)

• Quality and correctness of photo uploads

  • Check if the photo is clear and the whole document is in frame

  • No corners or sections of the document are cut of

  • Photo was taken directly above the document, not from an angle

  • Photo is not blurry or dark (i.e. document details should be easy to see)

  • Check if the photographed document is accurate (i.e. if a marriage certificate is selected, the photo is of a marriage certificate)

  • Check that all pages of the document are captured (i.e. not just the front page)

  • Check if the details in the document match the details submitted in the survey (i.e. name, property details – erf number, etc.)

  • Check for missing photos (i.e. fieldworker ticked that a document was available, but no photo was taken)

  • Photo of the property is of the whole dwelling (i.e. not just the front door) and is clear (i.e. not blurry, good lighting)

• Where sale agreements are signed, these need to be carefully checked:

  • Correct ERF number

  • Correct names (spelling) and ID numbers of purchasers

  • Each page initialed

  • Signature. Where the owner is married, two signatures on the sale agreement

  • Two witness signatures

Once the occupancy survey has been conducted and reviewed by data monitors it can be signed off / accepted by fieldwork managers

Data for signed off surveys should be extracted and saved

Images need to be saved and named using a clear naming convention (e.g. name of document_ID) and linked to the database record

Where the data from the occupancy survey on perceived owners shows a perfect match with beneficiaries as per HSS data, beneficiaries can sign sale agreements as part of the core registration process.

See Core Registration Process

It is critical that recruits understand the importance of the completeness and accuracy of the data they gather. They must therefore be provided with comprehensive training so that they understand why they are collecting data and how it will be used. Training takes place over three to five days depending on the number of fieldworkers to be trained. Aside from classroom-based training, there should be an opportunity for the team to test the survey instrument in field during a pilot. The pilot allows trainers to assess how well enumerators perform and identify weakness that need to be addressed with additional training.

The broad training curriculum includes:

• Introduction to POPIA

• Background and objectives of the project

• Conducting an interview and good fieldwork practice

• Survey / questionnaire training on devices

• Role play

• Health and safety protocols (e.g. COVID)

• Pilot in field

• Re-training where required

Additional Training Requirements

• A suitably sized and Wi-Fi enabled venue for the training session should be made available close enough to the study area to allow for easy access to on-site visits to conduct the pilot

• Demarcation maps for enumeration should be utilised during the training session so that the fieldworkers are able to receive clear and useful instructions from the fieldwork supervisors

• Enumerators should be made aware of any sensitivities that might exist during home visits so that they deal with difficult situations appropriately. These might include:

  • Households who refuse to participate

  • Situations where enumerators feel unsafe or threatened

  • Concerns on the part of non-qualifiers or purchasers that they might lose their homes

  • Married owner respondents who claim there is only one owner of the property and refuse to allow spouses to be interviewed / sign sale agreements

In backlog projects a number of years have passed since the property was allocated to beneficiaries. During that time life has happened; beneficiaries may have married, got divorced, died or sold their properties. This obviously has an impact on who the property should be transferred to.

The data gathered during the occupancy survey provides information on who the current perceived owners are and how they came to own the property. This information can be used to determine a pathway to transfer and to classify cases into those that can and must be actioned immediately and those where further processes are required.

The simplest cases are where all beneficiaries still regard themselves as owners and there is no competing claim on ownership from occupants in the property (where these are not the beneficiaries). These properties can be transferred immediately, and the housing authority should prioritise these cases; as with the passage of time additional complexities may arise.

In other cases, there may be some additional complexity that must be resolved prior to transfer.

The types of case categories are outlined below and described in more detail in the sections that follow.

At least one self-classified owner is a beneficiary

No self-classified owners are beneficiaries

Renter / Caretake

A final category is where occupants regard themselves as renters or caretakers

The occupancy survey should anticipate all of these different process requirements by pre-collecting as many source documents, and as much information as possible to limit additional collection engagement steps.

In some cases, beneficiaries might have got married subsequent to being granted a subsidy. Where the marriage is in community of property (which is common), the housing authority must include the new spouse in the transfer, irrespective of the subsidy status or eligibility of that spouse

During the occupancy survey, data will be collected on the marital status of the perceived owner and the date of marriage. In addition, enumerators will capture images of ID documents of owners as well as their marriage certificate. These images must be inspected by the housing authority to validate the current marital status of the beneficiary.

This section covers cases where one or more co-beneficiaries is not in occupation of the property and is no longer regarded as an owner of the property. This typically occurs because:

• Co-beneficiary is deceased

• Beneficiaries are divorced

1. Where the deceased co-beneficiary was a spouse, the surviving spouse needs to provide the following documents:

   • ID of the deceased

   • Marriage certificate

   • Death certificate

   • Will (if available)

2. Where the co-beneficiary was not a spouse, the surviving beneficiary needs to provide the following documents:

   • ID of the deceased

   • Death certificate

   • Masters letters of authority

3. Proceed to the Core Registration Process

Information gathered from the HSS confirms that the occupant is a beneficiary but shows that there was a co-beneficiary who was married to the beneficiary. Data from the occupancy survey indicates that the beneficiary and co-beneficiary are now divorced.

During the occupancy survey the beneficiary in occupation must provide the following documents:

1. Spouse ID

2. Marriage certificate

3. Divorce Order

The divorce order must be reviewed to establish the status of the property. There are two options

The divorce order specifies what should happen to the property

The divorce order does not mention the property

The Beneficiary in occupation indicates that s/he was married at the time the subsidy was granted, but is now divorced.

1. Beneficiary must provide the following documents:

   1. Spouse ID

   2. Marriage certificate

   3. Divorce Order

2. The divorce order is reviewed and the property is mentioned

3. Proceed to registration - Core Registration Process

See the alternate process for if The divorce order does not mention the property

In some cases the original occupant of the property is not a qualifying beneficiary. This is more common in informal settlement upgrading projects. There are three possible options:

1. The occupant qualifies for a subsidy but has never applied for a subsidy and an application needs to be submitted. Next step: submit a subsidy application

2. The occupant has applied for a subsidy in the past but was declined: In this case, the housing authority must extract and review the subsidy application from the HSS to assess reasons the application was declined. Where these reasons are based on circumstances that might have changed, the housing authority should ask the occupant to resubmit an application for a subsidy

3. The occupant does not qualify for a subsidy. Next step: Regularisation

To qualify for a subsidy, applicants must be

• A South African citizen or be permanent residents

• 18 years or older

• Married or living with a partner OR

• Single with proven financial dependents permanently living with the applicant

• Applicants have never owned property or received a subsidy from the government before

• Maximum monthly household income of R15 000 (in line with Guiding Principle 6).

• Where the occupant earns more than R15 000 the occupant can apply for a FLISP to purchase the property in line with the regularisation process. This price is set at a fixed amount of R15 000 (roughly approximating the value of the land in subsidy properties) plus transfer costs.

• Unlike other FLISP subsidies, there the occupant qualifies for a capital amount in excess of the land and transfer costs but this is not paid over to the beneficiary

In order to submit an application for a subsidy, the applicant must have the following documents:

1. ID document of applicant

2. ID documents of spouse / co-applicant (if applicable)

3. Marriage certificate (if applicable)

4. ID documents of dependants (if dependants are over the age of 18 years)

5. Unabridged birth certificates of children (if dependants are under the age of 18 years)

6. Proof of income

7. Where dependants are over the age of 18 years, proof of income of dependants

These documents must accompany a completed subsidy application form, available from each provincial Human Settlements Department (see https://www.westerncape.gov.za/assets/departments/human-settlements/docs/forms/hs-individual-housing-subsidy-application-form-final-30march2022.pdf for the Western Cape).

The housing authority can facilitate subsidy applications and re-applications in order to expedite the process, particularly where the housing authority is accredited and has access to the HSS.

Once the subsidy has been approved, the transfer process can proceed

See Core Registration Process

Where the self-classified owner cannot qualify for a subsidy, a regularisation process is required. During this process, the housing authority will sell the property to the self-classified owner occupant for a nominal amount of R15 000. This process is described in more detail in the regularisation overview in this toolkit.

In this case, the self-classified owner (who is not a beneficiary) was married to the beneficiary of the property, who has subsequently passed away. Where this occurs, the property will be transferred directly to the surviving spouse, irrespective of whether the surviving spouse qualifies as a beneficiary.

To support this transfer, the surviving spouse needs to provide the following documents:

• ID of the deceased

• Marriage certificate

• Death certificate

• Will (if available)

If the occupancy survey has followed the process outlined in this toolkit, these documents will have been collected during the survey.

Once the data has been validated and the supporting documents are provided, the housing authority can transfer to the surviving spouse in like with the Core Registration Process.

During the occupancy survey, the self-classified owner (who is not a beneficiary) indicates that he or she inherited the property from the deceased beneficiary (not a spouse). Typically, the self-classified owner will be a child of the beneficiary.

In these cases, the housing authority should transfer the property to 'Estate Late' Beneficiary. This process is described in more detail in the section on Dealing with deceased estates.

The housing authority has inspected the divorce order but there is no reference to the property. In this case, the housing authority must attempt to make contact with or trace the beneficiary who is not in occupation.

The housing authority must inform both beneficiaries that the divorce order does not reference the property, and must request that the beneficiaries reach a settlement as to what should happen. The beneficiaries need to specify this settlement in writing and sign it in front of two witnesses.

Once a settlement has been reached and the settlement document has been forwarded to the housing authority, transfer can proceed in line with the settlement agreement.

In this case, the self-identified owner occupant of the property claims to have inherited the property from a deceased beneficiary. Prior to transfer, the housing authority needs to validate that all beneficiaries are, in fact, deceased. This validation is based on Home Affairs data, corroborated by evidence collected during the occupancy survey, including any images of death certificates.

There are two scenarios:

• Self-classified owner is the spouse of a deceased beneficiary or

• Self-classified owners are other heirs (not a spouse)

Where the occupant indicated that he or she purchased the property informally from a beneficiary, it is important to validate that this transaction took place and that property ownership is not contested. The original beneficiary/ies must be contacted so that he or she can confirm the transaction took place and agree that he or she has no claim on the property.

There are four primary scenarios:

• Property purchased from a beneficiary who is alive and contactable: No dispute

• Property purchased from a beneficiary who alive and contactable: Disputed transaction

• Property purchased from a beneficiary who is alive but who cannot be traced

• Property purchased from a beneficiary who is deceased

Where the beneficiary has been traced and confirms the transaction took place, the transfer can proceed either:

• through a back to back transfer,

• with a subsidy where the current occupant qualifies; or

• through a regularisation process where the current occupant does not qualify.

In some cases, the beneficiary may dispute that the transaction took place. In these cases, the housing authority must try to mediate between the parties, assess available evidence and transfer on the basis of available evidence.

In some cases, the purchase may be a third or fourth generation transaction (the beneficiary sold to A who sold to B etc.). In these cases, the housing authority should make reasonable attempts to locate the beneficiary and confirm that the beneficiary has, in fact, sold the property and has no claim on it. The housing authority has no obligation to other sellers and would be within its rights to transfer to the current occupant on the basis of available evidence.

The occupant of the house claims to be have bought the house from the original beneficiary (i.e. there is evidence of an informal sale).

Where the beneficiary is alive and supports the fact of sale, there are three possible pathways to transfer:

1. Back to Back Transfer

2. Self-classified owner to apply for a subsidy in his / her own right in own right and action

3. Regularising non-beneficiaries

Process Overview

In this case, the housing authority transfers the property to the original beneficiary, who then immediately transfers the property to the new owner. The original beneficiary would sign two sales agreements, the first as a buyer with the housing authority as the seller, and the second as the seller with the occupant as the buyer.

In order to enable the second transfer (from the beneficiary to the current occupant), the beneficiary needs to obtain a waiver or 'no objection' letter from the provincial human settlements department in line with Section 10A of the Housing Act. This letter states that the provincial department has no objection to the sale and must accompany the transfer documents.

In the case of delayed transfer, these no-objection letters should be requested by the housing authority and provided by the provincial authority as a matter of course; the occupant lives in the property and there is no dispute about ownership. As per the Guiding Principles (Principle 1: Avoid evictions and Principle 4: The household's perspective matters), the housing authority and the provincial authority should enable the formalisation of existing informal ownership arrangements.

In practice the title deed for the primary registration is required before the subsequent transaction can be registered. When the primary registration is complete, the transferring attorneys should retain the title deed and not hand it back to the original beneficiary, but should rather deliver it to the conveyancer who is facilitating the second transfer.

The key steps in the back to back process are:

1. Occupant indicates that they purchased the property from the original beneficiary

2. Housing authority traces and contacts the beneficiary

3. Beneficiary confirms the sale of property

4. Housing authority requests a no objection letter from the provincial authority, which is duly granted and sent to the conveyancer dealing with the secondary transfer

5. The beneficiary signs a sale agreement with the housing authority

6. The beneficiary signs a sale agreement with the new owner / occupant

7. Conveyancer follows the core registration process for the first sale

8. Primary transfer is registered and title deed is returned to the conveyancer of the housing authority

9. Conveyancer of the housing authority sends the title deed to the conveyancer who is processing the secondary transfer

10. Conveyancer prepares transfer documents for the secondary transfer and lodges at the deeds registry following the usual registration process for the transfer of the second sale

It may not be feasible or desirable to proceed with a back to back transfer, for example where the original seller did not qualify for a subsidy or the subsidy was declined and the first leg of a back-to-back is not possible.

In this case, it is possible for the housing authority to transfer directly to the new owner. There are two scenarios:

• The self-classified owner does not qualify for a subsidy, and

Where the beneficiary disputes the occupant's claim on the property, this dispute needs to be adjudicated by the housing authority.

Step 1: Initial meeting

The housing authority calls affected parties to a hearing where each party is requested to present his / her case and bring relevant documentation or evidence.

Evidence might include:

• An informal sales agreement or affidavit signed by the buyer and seller

• Proof of payment

• Affidavits provided by neighbours

• Letters from a street committee confirming the sale

The authority should notify participants of the meeting in writing, noting that if invited parties do not attend or request a change in the date / time of the meeting, the housing authority can transfer the property in line with available evidence.

During the meeting, the authority should clearly explain that the purpose of the meeting is to gather information. The housing authority should outline the powers of the housing authority in the property transfer process and explain the requirements for transfer, notably that the housing authority must be satisfied that ownership is uncontested before transferring the property to any party.

In some cases, the disputing parties may reach agreement during this engagement. In this case, the housing authority should document the agreement and ask participants to sign the document.

Step 2: Adjudication

Where no agreement is reached, the disputing parties must appear before an adjudication panel comprised of officials from the housing authority and in some cases the provincial human settlements departments, depending on the level of accreditation in place. This panel will determine who the property should be transferred to.

Parties to the dispute have the right to appeal the outcome of the adjudication process, through an appeals panel to be established by the housing authority.

Step 3: Transfer in line with determination

The housing authority determines the rightful owner of the property and transfers accordingly. Where the new owner is not the occupant, it is not the housing authority's responsibility to evict the occupant. The registered property owner can approach the courts to enforce his or her rights once the property has been transferred.

Dealing with non-qualifiers

Where the self-classified owner qualifies for a subsidy, a process is required. During this process, the housing authority will sell the property to the self-classified owner occupant for a nominal amount of R15 000. This process is described in more detail in the regularisation overview in this toolkit.

Where the original beneficiary confirms that the property was sold and ownership is not contested, the housing authority can transfer the property to the purchaser. In some cases, this owner may qualify as a beneficiary in his / her own right. In such cases, the new owner must apply for a subsidy, and be added to the project as a beneficiary. In practice this may require the housing authority or the province to add an additional phase to the project to accommodate additional beneficiaries.

The subsidy records pertaining to the original beneficiary must be retained as that individual has, in fact, benefitted from a subsidy.

Once the subsidy has been approved for the new owner, the property can be transferred in line with the core registration process

Where the subsidy is not approved, the regularisation process must be followed.

• Self-classified owner does not qualify for a subsidy and regularisation is required

for more detail.

The housing authority must attempt to locate beneficiaries as described here.Locating missing beneficiaries

Where beneficiaries cannot be traced, the housing authority must proceed to transfer to the occupant and self-classified owner on the back of available evidence. This might require the self-classified owner to apply for a subsidy or follow the regularisation process.

Where the all beneficiaries are deceased, it is not necessary for the housing authority to try to locate heirs to validate that a transaction took place. The housing authority should examine the body of evidence pertaining to the transaction and where justified, transfer the property to the occupant and self-classified owner in line with this evidence. This might require the self-classified owner to apply for a subsidy or follow the regularisation process.

If there is no evidence of a transaction, the housing authority may require the occupant to sign an affidavit warranting that he or she purchased the property. In addition, a suspensive clause could be added to the sale agreement that would nullify the sale if the occupants fraudulently claimed to have purchased the property.

During the occupancy survey, the occupants indicates that they are renters or caretakers of the property. The survey questionnaire will prompt occupants to provide information on the owners, including contact details

The housing authority should attempt to contact the owner of the property using details provided by occupants. If this is not successful, the housing authority should follow the process outlined in the section on locating missing beneficiaries

Should the process be successful and the housing authority makes contact with the self-classified owner the claim to ownership and subsidy status must be assessed as with other self-classified owners listed below.

Overview

Where the original beneficiaries were not living on the property during the occupancy survey, the Housing Authority has an obligation to take reasonable steps to contact the beneficiary, inform them that the property transfer process is underway and establish if they still have a claim to the property.

There are two exceptions to the housing authority not having to attempt to contact beneficiaries:

1. Where all beneficiaries are deceased - as per data from Home Affairs

2. Where the original occupant was never a qualifying beneficiary

There are a number of scenarios where beneficiaries who are no longer in occupation need to be contacted. For instance, where the property is occupied by a renter or caretaker, the beneficiary needs to be located to sign the sale agreement. Likewise, where the occupancy survey shows that the property was purchased informally, the original beneficiary should be contacted to verify that the sale took place and is uncontested. A third scenario is where beneficiaries are separated or divorced (property is not dealt with in the divorce settlement) and one beneficiary is no longer living in the property.

There are various possible sources of data on the whereabouts and contact details of living beneficiaries.

Occupancy survey

The first source of data is the occupancy survey. During that interview with occupants, fieldworkers ask for the name and contact details of previous owners (for informal sales) or current owners (for renters / caretakers). In some instances, the current occupants will be able to provide:

• The contact details of the original beneficiaries if they are alive (e.g. cell phone number, email address, physical address), or

• The evidence or documents of the original beneficiaries if they are deceased (e.g. death certificate, Master’s Letter, Divorce Order)

Where this is not the case, a trace can first be done to acquire the contact information of the original beneficiaries.

Credit bureau trace

Where the occupant is unable or unwilling to provide contact details it is sometimes possible to obtain latest contact details from credit bureaus. Housing authorities can contract with credit bureaus who will provide this data for a fee.

Trace through other third parties

The City of Cape Town has piloted an approach through banks, who will reach out to beneficiary-clients to request them to contact the housing authority with regard to their subsidy.

Where contact details become available, a dedicated team within the municipality (OR an outsourced call centre) must make contact with each beneficiary, provide context and verify details provided by occupants. Calls must be recorded and saved on the Beneficiary Administration Database.

Advertise for missing beneficiaries to come forward

Where it efforts to trace beneficiaries have been unsuccessful, the housing authority should advertise for beneficiaries to come forward.

Standard notification processes typically require the authority to publish a notification / advert in a local newspaper for at least three full weeks (not over the December holiday period please), giving the original beneficiary or other claimants time to come forward.

This is unlikely to be sufficient, as newspapers are not widely read and beneficiaries may have moved away from the local area.

Housing authorities should therefore consider a range of media, including social media platforms, local and national radio, newspapers and community noticeboards, depending on the characteristics of the neighbourhood and beneficiaries. If these notifications do not reach beneficiaries directly, the hope is friends or relatives will see the advert and pass the information on.

As noted, adverts should be flighted for three weeks, and sufficient time set aside for beneficiaries to come forward.

Housing authorities must maintain evidence of adverts so that they can demonstrate that reasonable attempts were made to contact missing beneficiaries.

Tracing process outcome

If the tracing process is successful, the housing authority makes contact with the beneficiary/ies, and then categorises the property according to the categories outlined so that transfer can proceed as per the process for that category.

Where the process is not successful and no beneficiaries have come forward, the housing authority must proceed with transfer on the basis of available evidence.

Where the case requires some additional investigation or information, a number of key processes can be followed:

• Locating missing beneficiaries

• Submit or re-submit a subsidy application

To qualify for a subsidy, applicants must be

• A South African citizen or be permanent residents

• 18 years or older

• Married or living with a partner OR

• Single with proven financial dependents permanently living with the applicant

• Applicants have never owned property or received a subsidy from the government before

• Maximum monthly household income of R15 000 (in line with Guiding Principle 6).

• Where the occupant earns more than R15 000 the occupant can apply for a FLISP to purchase the property in line with the. This price is set at a fixed amount of R15 000 (roughly approximating the value of the land in subsidy properties) plus transfer costs.

• Unlike other FLISP subsidies, there the occupant qualifies for a capital amount in excess of the land and transfer costs but this is not paid over to the beneficiary

In order to submit an application for a subsidy, the applicant must have the following documents:

1. ID document of applicant

2. ID documents of spouse / co-applicant (if applicable)

3. Marriage certificate (if applicable)

4. ID documents of dependents

5. Unabridged birth certificates of children

6. Proof of income

These documents must accompany a completed subsidy application form, available from each provincial Human Settlements Department (see for the Western Cape).

The housing authority can facilitate subsidy applications and re-applications in order to expedite the process, particularly where the housing authority is accredited and has access to the HSS.

Once the subsidy has been approved, the transfer process can proceed

Where there is a dispute as to who owns the property, this dispute needs to be adjudicated by the housing authority.

Step 1: Invite parties to a conciliation meeting

The authority should notify participants of the conciliation meeting in writing and needs to take all reasonable steps to ensure that the parties receive the invitation to the meeting. Standard notification processes in law require sending notifications by registered mail but this is unlikely to be sufficient, as the parties are unlikely to collect registered mail and the postal system is inefficient.

Housing authorities should therefore consider delivering the invitation to participants by hand or via local ward councillors or community leaders, or via social media, depending on the characteristics of the neighbourhood and beneficiaries.

Housing authorities must maintain evidence of delivery of the invitation so that they can demonstrate that reasonable attempts were made to ensure participants are given a chance to attend the conciliation meeting.

The invitation should ask a prospective participant to prepare his / her case to present at the conciliation meeting and to bring all relevant documentation or evidence. In addition, each participant should be invited to bring a witness with them to the meeting for the purposes of proof that the meeting was held and how it was adjudicated, but the witness will not be allowed to present evidence at the meeting. The invitation should also note that if invited parties do not attend or request a change in the date / time of the meeting, the housing authority can transfer the property in line with available evidence presented at the meeting in the absence of that party.

An example of an invitation can be found under the .

Step 2 : Conciliation meeting

The housing authority convenes the conciliation meeting on the date set out in the invitation. The meeting is presided over by a duly authorised panel comprised of officials from the housing authority and in some cases the provincial human settlements departments, depending on the level of accreditation in place.

Before the meeting commences, the housing authority should get all participants to sign an attendance register confirming their participation in the meeting. An example of an attendance register can be found under the .

Each participant present his / her case along with relevant documentation or evidence.

Evidence might include:

• An informal sales agreement or affidavit signed by the buyer and seller

• Proof of payment of the purchase price of a property

• A will or document attesting to an ownership claim

• Affidavits provided by neighbours

• Letters from a street committee

During the meeting, the authority should clearly explain that the purpose of the meeting is to gather information. The housing authority should outline the powers of the housing authority in the property transfer process and explain the requirements for transfer, notably that the housing authority must be satisfied that ownership is uncontested before transferring the property to any party.

In some cases, the disputing parties may reach agreement during this engagement. In this case, the housing authority should document the agreement and ask participants to sign the document, which should confirm that the property will be transferred in accordance with the document signed. The parties should be given a copy of the document at the meeting.

Where no agreement is reached between participants during the conciliation meeting, the panel will determine who the property should be transferred to and should document the decision in writing. The parties should be given a copy of the document at the meeting.

Parties to the dispute have the right to appeal the outcome of the adjudication process, through an appeals panel to be established by the housing authority.

Step 3: Transfer in line with determination

Once the conciliation meeting has produced an outcome:

• and the adjudicated owner does not show a perfect match with beneficiaries as per HSS data, there are three possible options:

1. The adjudicated owner qualifies for a subsidy but has never applied for a subsidy and an application needs to be submitted. Next step: submit a subsidy application

2. The adjudicated owner has applied for a subsidy in the past but was declined: In this case, the housing authority must extract and review the subsidy application from the HSS to assess reasons the application was declined. Where these reasons are based on circumstances that might have changed, the housing authority should ask the adjudicated owner to resubmit an application for a subsidy

Where the adjudicated owner is not the occupant, it is not the housing authority's responsibility to evict the occupant. The registered property owner can approach the courts to enforce his or her rights once the property has been transferred.

Example templates

All the example templates referenced are available under the 'ADDITIONAL RESOURCES' section, Dispute Resolution tab. A direct link is given below:

The entry criteria for this step is that owners of the property have been identified and confirmed with all due process and the housing authority is now ready to proceed with the registration of the property in the appropriate owners' names by following the Core Registration Process.

In order to transfer a state owned property the transferee must be a subsidy beneficiary. In some cases, there will be a further step needed before the Core registration Process can commence such as:

• the deceased estates process needs to be completed

Core Process Summary

1. Housing Authority generates sales agreement and reviews all supporting documents and data for completeness

2. Engage beneficiary to sign agreement and provide any missing or poor quality supporting documents including copies of ID documents and marriage certificates

3. Housing Authority countersigns the sale agreement and forwards signed sale agreement and supporting documents to conveyancer

4. Conveyancer prepares transfer documents

5. Conveyancer returns the transfer documents to the Housing Authority for signature

6. Housing authority signs the transfer documents

7. Conveyancer obtains rates clearance certificate, SARS transfer duty exemption

8. Conveyancer lodges at the Deeds office (see Contracting with conveyancers)

9. Deed offices process lodgement and issues deed which is returned to the Conveyancer

10. Conveyancer returns the deed to the Housing Authority

11. Housing Authority notes deed issue for delivery tracking and provides deed to Owner (see Title deed handover)

• Where the occupant does not qualify for a subsidy because he or she (or their spouse) has already owned a property or benefitted from a subsidy in the past or earns too much for a subsidy, the occupant must purchase the property for a nominal amount of R15 000, and must pay transfer costs

• The buyer is free to select a conveyancer. Alternatively, the housing authority can refer the buyer to the project conveyancer. The Housing Authority may wish to request a special reduced rate from the project conveyancer for these buyers.

• Where the occupant cannot pay R15 000 and or transfer costs, the occupant can apply for a rebate.

• In order to review applications in a transparent manner, the municipality should establish a review panel which should consider:

  • How the occupant came to be in the property and how much was paid to purchase the property from the original beneficiary

  • The income of the occupant

  • The ability of the occupant to access funding

• Where the panel is unable to support the request of the occupant for a price rebate, and the occupant is unwilling to pay anything further to regularise ownership, the housing authority can lease the property to the occupant with an option to purchase at a later stage.

• While the housing authority has the right to determine the terms of the lease agreement, it may be optimal to set the rental at R0, with the leaseholder responsible for maintenance and payment of services

• As the leaseholder, the housing authority will have to manage the lease. A specific official should be made accountable for this

See section on Regularisation

In some cases, the property must be transferred to 'Estate Late'. This process requires that the heirs of the deceased beneficiary report the estate to the Master of the High Court or a designated service point in the area the deceased was living for the 12 months prior to his/her death.

In the vast majority of cases, the value of the estate will be less than R250 000, and the estate will be classified as a small estate. A number of documents must be provided by the heirs when the estate is reported. These include:

• Completed Death Notice (afr or eng) form - J294

• Original or certified copy of the Death Certificate

• Original or certified copy of Marriage Certificate (if applicable) or acceptable proof of marriage, as requested by the Master.

• Original will (if any)

• Completed Next-of-Kin Affidavit - J192 (if the deceased did not leave a valid will)

• Completed Inventory (form - J243) showing all the assets of the deceased. Proof of the value of the assets must be provided. In the case of the subsidy property, this is valued at the subsidy value, based on evidence provided by the housing authority

• List of creditors of deceased (if applicable)

• Nominations by the heirs for the appointment of a Master’s representative in the case of an intestate estate

• Acceptance of Master’s Directions - J155 (eng), completed and signed by the person as nominated above.

• Certified copy of the ID of the person to be appointed as Master’s representative.

The Master's office will issue a Letter of Appointment as Master’s Representative also known as the Letter of Authority.

Once the Letter of Appointment has been obtained, the Core Registration Process to the Estate Late beneficiary can proceed, with the Master's Representative signing on behalf of the deceased beneficiary.

Where there is no will in place (the most common scenario), the transfer will follow the laws of intestate succession. According to these laws, if there is no spouse, the property will be transferred to remaining children equally (if there is a spouse see self-classified owner is the spouse of a deceased beneficiary). For other scenarios (i.e. where there is no spouse and no children, see https://www.justice.gov.za/master/wills-is.html)

The Housing Authority will need to appoint conveyancers to register the property transfer on their behalf. Conveyancers, in accepting an appointment from a Housing Authority, must agree to the process and documentation set stipulated by the Housing Authority.

Conveyancers must further agree to accept images of documents captured by enumerators during occupancy surveys.

When appointing a conveyancer the contract should specify:

• Activities to be undertaken by conveyancer

• Timelines​

• Fees​

• Penalties for non-compliance

The real stories that come from getting deeds into peoples' hands help shed light on some of the complexity and adversary, but also demonstrate the importance and impact that granting a deed can have.

• That's Mine! - what happens when two people claim the same property?

1. Checking the title deed

Once the registered title deed has been received from the Deeds Office it is critical that the document is checked to confirm that it has the correct information on it. These checks should be conducted by the conveyancer and by the housing authority before the handover process. This includes confirming that the beneficiaries names are correctly spelt, that ID numbers are correct, that the beneficiaries marital status is correct, and that the property details are correct (erf number, street address).

Should the title deed contain any incorrect information, it is critical that an application be brought to the Deeds Office to correct the information in line with Section4(1)(b) of the Deeds Registry Act. This needs to be done by the conveyancer.

Failure to do so will results in delays and costs for the beneficiaries for any subsequent transfers of the property, including transferring the property out of a deceased estate.

2. Storage

Any title deeds handed over to the Housing Authority or any other stakeholder in the process should be kept in a controlled, secure storage location.

It is imperative that proper record keeping practices, preferably digital, are in place to keep track of which title deeds have left the conveyancers and been handed over to the Housing Authority.

3. Title deed handover

When the title deed is available, the beneficiary should be contacted to collect their title deed as soon as possible. The communication to beneficiaries should inform them to bring proof of identity (preferably physical ID book or smart card) when collecting their title deed.

The actual handover process may be implemented in several ways:

• By a centralised office within the Housing Authority

• By local ‘pop up’ offices run by Housing Authority officials and / or in partnership with local NGOs or leadership structures

• By leveraging private sector partners, such as banks who can offer safe, convenient and accessible branches for beneficiaries to collect their title deeds from

Regardless of which channel is used for the final handover, it is critical that a digital system is implemented to track and trace title deeds throughout the handover process. Similar to how logistics and delivery companies operate, each time the physical title deed changes hands a digital record must be created to ensure proper tracking of the process and, critically, to create a verifiable record that the document has been handed over to the correct person.

In addition, a digital title deed track and trace system can be leveraged to improve communication with beneficiaries. SMS or email notifications can be triggered based on the status of the document in the process, for example when the housing authority receives the title deed from the conveyancers, a SMS can be sent to the beneficiary informing them of when and where to collect their document.

A well implemented title deed track and trace system will help manage expectations of beneficiaries, improve the efficiency of the process, and build trust in the system.

Cost effective and easily implementable solutions are readily available on the market. See the case study (to be developed) on how the Transaction Support Centre used Detrack to implement digital Proof of Deliveries (PODs) for the title deed handover process.

4. Keeping it Safe

Once the physical deed is handed over, the beneficiary should be made aware of the importance of the document and the need to keep it safe. Future property transfers will require the document, and losing it will result in having to pay replacement costs.

5. Planning for the future

The handover process is also good opportunity to educate the beneficiary on the benefits of creating a will and how they can go about doing this.

Case study to be written

Case study to be selected and written

Case study to be selected and written

Case study to be selected and written

Case study to be selected and written

Underpinning the beneficiary administration process is the collection and processing of personal information pertaining to subsidy beneficiaries and occupants of subsidy properties. This must adhere to the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA)

The eight principles of POPIA are summarised below

Beneficiaries and occupants about whom information is collated or who provide personal information are referred to as data subjects.

Provisions of POPIA allow for the collection of information where the collection of this data "is necessary for the proper performance of a public law duty by a public body".

The consent of the data subject is therefore not required. However, all data subjects should be made aware of the data that is collected and processed, how it is used, their rights to inspect the data and to amend any errors

In addition, this information must be handled and processed with due care in line with other provisions of POPIA.

All data must be saved in a secure, password protected environment. Ideally this should be centralised so that the chances of a data breach are minimised

All team members who work with beneficiary data should be made aware of the importance of protecting this information

There should also be a clear protocol with respect to a data breach

Given that data is often processed by third parties, including field work companies, data analysts and conveyancers, who assist in the beneficiary administration process, it is critical that they are made aware of the importance of safeguarding this information and have appropriate measures in place internally to secure the data they collect or process. Third parties who process personal information should sign a third party agreement to warrant that they will abide by POPIA and other applicable laws. Specific undertakings in this agreement include use the data to fulfil the terms of the contract only, a commitment that the third party has taken all reasonable steps to secure the data and prevent unauthorised access to the data

A sample third party agreement is provided:

Key definitions from POPIA are provided below

An example of a community letter that can be provided to support the survey work is available. Ideally this should also be made available in local languages (to be added)

An example Sales Agreement for a cash based property sale (without other financing) is provided below

The dispute resolution approach that can be followed by the housing authority to attempt to work with the acrimonious parties is outlined in Dispute Resolution.

In order to support the proposed process some supporting example template documents are provided. They are each provided in a MS office format (for electronic use) and in a pdf format (for printed paper use):

• Conciliation meeting Invite

• Attendance register of conciliation meeting

• Agreement reached at conciliation meeting

• Outcome of conciliation meeting

Conciliation meeting Invite

Attendance register of conciliation meeting

Agreement reached at conciliation meeting

Outcome of conciliation meeting

An example of the survey is available to download here (to be added).