Where the case requires some additional investigation or information, a number of key processes can be followed:
Where there is a dispute as to who owns the property, this dispute needs to be adjudicated by the housing authority.
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 Additional Resources tab.
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 Additional Resources tab.
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.
An example of the document recording agreement reached at a conciliation meeting can be found under the Additional Resources tab.
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.
An example of the document determining the outcome of the conciliation meeting can be found under the Additional Resources tab.
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.
Once the conciliation meeting has produced an outcome:
and the adjudicated owner 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
and the adjudicated owner does not show a perfect match with beneficiaries as per HSS data, there are three possible options:
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
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
The adjudicated owner does not qualify for a subsidy. See Regularising non-beneficiaries
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.
All the example templates referenced are available under the 'ADDITIONAL RESOURCES' section, Dispute Resolution tab. A direct link is given below:
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:
ID document of applicant
ID documents of spouse / co-applicant (if applicable)
Marriage certificate (if applicable)
ID documents of dependents
Unabridged birth certificates of children
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
See
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:
Where all beneficiaries are deceased - as per data from Home Affairs
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.
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.
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.
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.
Maturity Roadmap: suggestion for improvement
Given the high coincidence between housing subsidy beneficiaries and SASSA beneficiaries, a potential source of data on the location and contact details of beneficiaries is the SASSA database. This database is likely to contain the most accurate contact details given the relatively frequent interactions between SASSA and grant beneficiaries.
To access SASSA data it would be useful to establish an information sharing MOU which would outline why and how the data is to be accessed, and how it will be secured.
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.
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.
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.