How do I find out which deceased parent our RDP home belonged to?

The long answer

To find out what the history of the RDP house is, you need to start with the municipality where your mother applied for the house. They will have her proof of registration for the RDP house, which is called a C-Form. The C-Form will have her application number and the date that she applied. 

They will also have the list of dependents she gave when she applied for the RDP house. These dependents/children will generally stand to inherit the house as the government’s policy is that RDP houses should stay in the family. The municipality will also have the “happy letter” which your mother would have needed to sign when the house was awarded to her. They would also know when she got the title deed for the house, which could take eight years. There has been a big backlog in issuing title deeds: in 2016, the year that your mother died, there was an estimated backlog of 900,000 title deeds for RDP houses.   

If you don’t know where the title deed is and whether your mother did get a title deed for the RDP house in her name, you would have to go to your nearest Deeds Office in person, with the ERF number of the house [not the street address] and your mother’s ID and death certificate, if you have it, and ask them to check if title deeds were issued to your mother.

From 1 April 2026, the Deeds Office will charge R19,00 for an enquiry about a person, a property or a deed. To view or download a document from DeedsWeb will cost R109 per document, and to get a certified copy of a title deed will cost R658.

The Deeds Office will also know if the title deed was transferred to your father’s name. This could not have been done without your mother’s agreement. To transfer ownership is a legal process involving the Deeds Office and a transfer lawyer (a conveyancing attorney). A conveyancing attorney’s fees depend on the value of the property: for properties under R100,000, fees start at about R6,640. So it seems unlikely that your father could have afforded these fees. 

So finding out if the property was indeed transferred to him is the first problem to be settled. 

Have you seen the papers that your brother says confirm that the house was in his father’s name? 

Let’s look now at who has the right to inherit an RDP house: If the house was in your mother’s name, and she did not make a will, she would be said to have died intestate and the Intestate Succession Act of 1987 would apply in this way: if there was a surviving spouse and children, the property would be left to him and their children. If there was no surviving spouse, the children would inherit equally. But if your father’s son was not your mother’s child, he would not have qualified as one of the surviving children who stood to inherit your mother’s property, as the Intestate Succession Act only recognises blood relations.  

In 2016, when your mother died, your father who was her unmarried partner would not have been able to inherit as a spouse. But since the 2021 decision of the Constitutional Court in the Bwanya vs Master of the High Court case, an unmarried partner in a permanent relationship now has the same rights of inheritance as a married person or spouse. That decision was not activated for 18 months after the 2021 case, to give parliament time to change the law. But it was put into operation from April 2024.

So if your mother died in 2016 without making a will, your father would not have qualified as a surviving spouse, but you and your sister would have qualified as surviving children. 

If the house was indeed transferred legally to your father’s name, and he made a will leaving it to your brother, your brother would inherit it now that your father has died. 

But if he did not make a will, the house would be inherited equally by all his children, which unfortunately does not include his stepchildren. The Intestate Succession Act says that only spouses, blood relatives, and legally adopted children inherit when someone dies without a will. Simply living in the house does not change that legal position. Only if a stepchild is legally adopted would they stand to inherit. 

Once you know what the position is regarding the title deed, you can ask for legal help or guidance. The Black Sash is an organisation that gives free paralegal advice. These are their details:

• Black Sash

email: help@blacksash.org.za and info@blacksash.org.za

Tel (national office): 021 686 6952

Helpline: 072 66 33 73, 072 633 3739 or 063 610 1865.

Wishing you the best,
Athalie