I live in my late father's RDP house. How do I transfer water and electricity bills to my name?

The long answer

Thank you for your email asking how you can transfer water and electricity bills to your name, living in your late father’s RDP house since before 2007.

As you have a letter of authority from the court, you should be able to ask the municipality to send the water and electricity bills to you. You should take all the documents they might need like the court letter of authority, your father’s death certificate and ID, your own ID and perhaps the children’s birth certificates.

If your father had the title deed of the house, and you want to have it transferred to you, you would need a lawyer, called a conveyancing attorney, to transfer the title deed into your name. The conveyancing attorney sees to it that the title deed is signed into your name by the Registrar of Deeds and files a copy in the Deeds Office.

The conveyancing attorney charges a fee, which can be as much as R7,680, for all the paperwork that must be done to transfer the title deeds to you. It may be worth asking your municipal office if they can assist you to get it done more economically.

If there is no title deed, you could bring an application to the high court to ask for a declaratory order that the house be transferred into your name. You could ask Legal Aid to assist you with the application:

Tel: 0800 110 110 (Monday to Friday 7AM - 7PM)  079 835 7179 (Please Call Me)  email: communications2@legal-aid.co.za