Available immediately – long term

Extensive garden with mature trees.

Sizeable entrance hall.

Guest toilet and basin.

Carpeted study.

Large family room/living room with built-in bookcases and storage cupboards as well as a fireplace.

Large fold back wooden doors to patio running the full length of the house.

Patio with retractable awning and pergola.

Separate generous dining room with wooden doors to patio.

Kitchen with space for dishwasher, stove, oven, double sink, extractor fan and pantry cupboard.

Drying yard, separate laundry and staff quarters with toilet.

Garage and ample secure parking.

Secure bedroom wing.

Family bathroom with bath, shower and single basin.

Second bathroom with bath, basin and toilet.

Bedroom 1 – Wooden floors and built in cupboards. Wall of display and book shelves and storage cupboards.

Bedroom 2 – Doors to patio, parquet floors and built in cupboards.

Bedroom 3 – Large guest room with parquet floors, built in cupboards, book shelves and decorative porthole windows.

Bedroom 4 – Wooden floors and an abundance of built in cupboards, doors to the patio and a television point.

Separate swimming pool pavilion and swimming pool with safety fencing.

Level grassed garden with separate tiered well treed children’s play area with trampoline and jungle gym.

Extras:

Linen cupboard

Electric fencing

Beams and alarm and burglar barred windows

Irrigation sprinklers

Available from the 7 June to 10 September

“Most of us, including myself, have an innate respect for the legal profession and for conveyancing attorneys.  We are inclined to feel that once the deed of sale is signed we can sit back and leave the legal process to them.  However, as I have experienced recently – not for the first time – certain conveyancers can and do overlook important deadlines and this leads to problems, especially for those who need the cash by a certain date.”

Problems, added du Plessis, often occur simply because the conveyancer has become so successful that he cannot handle all the work himself.  It is then delegated to a legal clerk whose task is simply to “cut and paste in” such details as the buyer’s name and the erf number but who may remain ignorant of certain deadlines and suspensive conditions.

Du Plessis has recently sold the office block which he owned in Main Road, Claremont.  He paid his rates clearance fee to the conveyancer on 17^th February and was assured that the transfer process had been set in motion.  Multiple follow up emails to the conveyancers were met with reassuring replies that the process was being closely monitored.

By 16 March he had still received no rates clearance certificate.  When, after several attempts, he finally got through on the telephone to the rates office, he discovered that they had no record of the payment.

The certificate finally came through on 24 March.

“It is annoying,” said du Plessis, “that I should have had to find out for myself that the payment had somehow got lost.  After ten days the conveyancer should have checked and after 20 days all the alarm bells should have been ringing.

“With the current shambles at the rates clearance department, a good conveyancer has to track the progress of a rates clearance application and follow up if it is not issued within the anticipated period – the length of the anticipated wait varies from week to week but is supposed to be shortening.”

Although it is not the estate agent’s task, most professional agents would also monitor the date of the buyer’s deposit, but not worrying about the legal process after that, added du Plessis.

Payment of the deposit makes it far less likely that the buyer will renege on the purchase.

The conveyancer will also, said du Plessis, check the date on which the buyer’s guarantees must be supplied – usually within two weeks.

“A conscientious lawyer will always pursue the guarantees at once,” said du Plessis, “because he will know that the buyer may need time to realise his assets, e.g. by selling shares, and he will understand that the bank will not issue any guarantees on money not actually in the client’s account and “frozen”.”

Most contracts, he said, state that the buyer must provide guarantees within two weeks of being requested to do so by the conveyancer.  There is no reason why an attorney should wait three to four weeks to call for guarantees, when the contract allows him to do so immediately.  If, as frequently happens, the attorney takes this extra time to ask for the guarantees, said du Plessis, there is always a chance not only that the deal will fall through but that a financial crash of some kind will make the money no longer available.

“The provision of guarantees, and the possibility that they can be called for quite soon after the offer is accepted, is one point that is often not adequately explained to buyers by estate agents. A professional agent should find out if the buyer is able to provide guarantees within the contractual time period, and if not, should make allowance for this in the agreement.”

Du Plessis warned, too, that where a bond has been granted to pay for the property, an inefficient bond attorney can hold up the whole process.  No matter how efficient the primary conveyancer, he cannot lodge a transfer if the bond attorney has not completed his documents.  Despite the fact that it makes much more sense and is much more efficient for the same firm to handle the conveyancing and bond registration, the banks will for security reasons insist that different attorneys handle these items

Finally, said du Plessis, the seller should make a point of cancelling his bond with the bank the day after the sale has been signed.  In doing so, he will probably avoid having to pay a penalty for terminating the bond within the usually obligatory three months cancellation notice period.

Summing up, du Plessis said that the deadlines and complete-by dates on a property sale should not be taken lightly and should be pointed out in a covering letter to the conveyancer when the agent sends the documents through.  Thereafter, with his estate agent at his side, the seller should check regularly that his conveyancer is on the ball.

“The plain truth,” said du Plessis, “is that conveyancers are paid healthy fees for a job which in eight cases out of ten is fairly straightforward.  Despite the anomaly that the buyer is paying the conveyancing fees, whilst the seller usually nominates the conveyancer, the primary tasks of the conveyancer are to ensure compliance with the terms of the agreement, and to see that the sale is legally and financially secured as soon as possible.”

3 Car garage + secure parking for at least 5 cars.
Large entrance hall with floor to ceiling glass reflecting a courtyard garden.
Wooden floors throughout downstairs.
Step down to large open living, dining and family area.
Large double-sided gas fireplace with natural stone clad chimney breast separately two of the areas and linen wallpapered feature walls.
Floor to ceiling glass sliding doors in excess of 3m opening to balau pool surround and deck.
Covered patio with exquisite mountain views and surrounding garden.
Granite counters in the large open-plan kitchen with Gaggenau oven, 4 plate solid stove + Siemens single gas plate and additional Siemens oven. Dedicated microwave space. Prep sink and Aquapura water filter.
Separate scullery and large pantry with space for dishwasher opens to a drying yard with laundry sink.
Separate laundry / staff quarters.
Study with built-in bookcase and underfloor heating.
Home features beautiful frameless corner glass walls for enjoying the garden view.
Guest cloakroom.
2 carpeted bedrooms downstairs – both en-suite with glass doors opening to outdoor balau decking.
Both en-suites have walk-in showers with wall hung cabinets and top mounted basin and toilet.
Double volume wooden staircase opening to the upstairs gallery area.
Upstairs has a wooden passage that leads to large family room with built-in bookshelves, and fireplace, underfloor heating and a wall of sliding doors enjoying the mountain views and tree canopy.
Beautiful large window seat with skylight above.
Roof top cactus garden.
Large linen cupboard.
Large main bedroom with built-in wall unit and TV point and beautiful mountain views and access to the large upstairs balau deck.
Walk-in large dressing room with well fitted cupboards and a skylight.
2 Additional carpeted bedrooms with doors to upstairs deck.
Family bathroom with bath with shower over bath, toilet and wall hung cabinet with top mounted basin.
Extras:
Heated swimming pool.
Alarmed and electric fence surrounds the property.