Why This Matters
Before any transfer document can be drafted or lodged at the Deeds Office, your attorney is legally required to know exactly who you are. This is not bureaucratic box-ticking — it is a statutory obligation rooted in South Africa's Financial Intelligence Centre Act.
The Legal Foundation: Law firms are classified as "accountable institutions" under FICA. This means they carry the same anti-money laundering obligations as banks — and property transactions are among the highest-risk environments for financial crime worldwide.
The approach South Africa now applies is called risk-based. Rather than applying a rigid one-size-fits-all checklist, your conveyancer is required to assess the nature and complexity of your particular transaction and gather whatever documentation is proportionate to that risk profile. What this means practically is that different clients — individuals, trusts, companies, foreign entities — require meaningfully different documents.
Section One
Identity Documents Required for Individual Buyers & Sellers
If you are a natural person buying or selling a property, your conveyancer needs to confirm your full name, surname and identity number with precision — because these must be reproduced correctly in every legal document lodged at the Deeds Office.
Your government-issued identity document is the cornerstone of your FICA file. A certified copy of your South African ID — whether the older green barcoded booklet or the newer smart card — must be provided to your conveyancer before transfer documents can be prepared. The details in your ID inform every deed and supporting document in your transaction.
If your ID has an error: Mistakes in names or identity numbers on your ID document must be dealt with at the time of transfer. Your conveyancer will need to obtain a special conveyancer's certificate documenting the discrepancy and explaining the correct particulars.
No ID document at all? In the rare situation where a party simply does not possess any identity document, an affidavit confirming this must be prepared — and unlike most other FICA documents, this one is actually lodged at the Deeds Office alongside the deed of transfer. A conveyancer's certificate covering the same facts may substitute.
| What You'll Need to Provide |
|---|
| Certified copy of South African ID — Smart card (both sides) or green barcoded book — whichever you hold. Must be currently valid and not expired. |
| Affidavit confirming identity & marital status — Your conveyancer will typically prepare this document for you to sign before a commissioner of oaths. It verifies your personal details and is kept on your file — not lodged at the Deeds Office. |
| Affidavit of solvency — Confirms that you are not insolvent and that no sequestration proceedings are pending against you or your spouse. Needed so the conveyancer can certify these facts when signing the preparation certificate. |
| FICA verification affidavit — An additional affidavit specifically prepared under FICA to confirm and support the identity verification process — supplementing your ID and proof of address. |
Section Two
Proof of Residential Address: What Is Accepted
Knowing where a client lives is a core element of customer due diligence. Your conveyancer must be able to verify your physical address — not just your postal box — to satisfy the risk-based assessment framework under FICA.
The Principle: Under FICA's risk-based framework, the aim is to verify your identity using information obtained from a reliable and independent third-party source. Address documents must confirm where you actually reside, not just where you receive mail.
Utility Account
An electricity, water or rates account in your name showing your residential address. Generally accepted when issued within the past three months.
Bank Statement
An official statement from a recognised financial institution reflecting your name and home address. Must be recent — typically not older than three months.
Municipal Account
A municipal rates or services bill addressed to you at the property or your home. This is often the most readily available option for property owners.
Lease Agreement
A current signed lease agreement confirming your tenancy at your residential address can serve as proof if other documents are not available.
Other Official Correspondence
SARS correspondence, insurance documents or similar official letters addressed to you at your physical residential address may also be accepted.
Telephone Account
A landline or mobile contract account in your name reflecting your residential address may be accepted as supplementary proof.
Practical tip: Address documents must typically be recent — not older than three months from the date of your FICA submission. If you live with someone else and the account is not in your name, ask your attorney about alternative verification options such as an affidavit from the account holder confirming your address.
Section Three
Marriage Certificates & Antenuptial Contracts: When We Need Them
Your marital status is not merely personal information — in South African property law, it fundamentally determines who owns what, and who must consent to what. Every property deed lodged at the Deeds Office must correctly reflect a party's marital status.
Your conveyancer needs to see your marriage certificate to verify the date of your marriage and confirm your status. The certificate is carefully checked against other documents, particularly your antenuptial contract, to make sure that the matrimonial property regime reflected in the deeds matches the legal reality of your marriage.
Marriage Certificate
Civil Marriages
A certified copy of your marriage certificate from the Department of Home Affairs reflecting both parties' names and the date of marriage.
Customary Marriages
Where a marriage is recognised under the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act, a registration certificate issued by the Department of Home Affairs must be obtained.
Antenuptial Contract
If you are married out of community of property, a copy of your antenuptial contract (ANC) must be provided. Your conveyancer checks four things specifically:
Timing of Execution
The ANC must have been signed before a notary public before the marriage took place. If it was not, the marriage is treated as in community of property regardless of what the document says.
Exclusion of Community
The contract must expressly exclude community of property and community of profit and loss. Both exclusions must be present for the marriage to be fully out of community.
Donations Clause
The ANC is checked for any donations of property between spouses, which may affect ownership or create real rights that must be reflected in the transfer.
Registration Within Three Months
The ANC must have been registered within three months of execution before the notary. Late registration raises validity concerns that need careful consideration.
Section Four
FICA for Trusts: What Documents Are Required
Trusts are one of the most common vehicles for holding property in South Africa — and they attract the most comprehensive FICA requirements of any client type. Because a trust has no legal personality of its own, the law looks through it to identify all the real human beings involved.
Important context — FICA's focus is primarily on inter vivos (living) trusts. FICA's trust provisions target inter vivos trusts — those created during a person's lifetime via a trust deed. Testamentary trusts (created by a will), court-ordered trusts and trusts for curatorship beneficiaries generally fall outside FICA's definition and attract different rules.
When a trust is transacting, the attorney is required to establish and verify the identities of the real people behind it. Here is what must be gathered:
| Documents & Details Required |
|---|
| Trust name and IT/MT number — The full registered name of the trust and the Master's reference number (which begins with "IT" for inter vivos trusts and "MT" for testamentary trusts). Both appear on the letter of authority from the Master. |
| Address of the relevant Master's office — The trust is registered at a specific office of the Master of the High Court. That location must be confirmed and recorded. |
| Identity of the founder — The person who originally created and donated assets to the trust must be identified. Certified ID and contact particulars are required. |
| Identity of every trustee — All trustees must be identified and verified — not just the one signing the documents. Each trustee's ID document must be obtained. |
| Authorised signatory — The specific trustee or person authorised to transact on behalf of the trust in this particular matter must be identified and verified separately. |
| Named beneficiaries — Where the trust deed names specific beneficiaries, those individuals must be identified. Where beneficiaries are defined by class (e.g., "my descendants"), the mechanism for determining them must be recorded instead. |
| Letter of authority from the Master — This critical document, issued by the Master of the High Court, confirms the trustees' appointment and their powers. Without this, trustees cannot legally act on behalf of the trust in property transactions. |
| Trust deed — The founding instrument of the trust must be obtained and reviewed so the conveyancer can confirm the trustees' authority to engage in the specific transaction at hand. |
| Trust resolution — A resolution signed by the trustees authorising the specific transaction, specifying who may sign on behalf of the trust and confirming the nature of the deal. |
Section Five
FICA for Companies & Close Corporations
When a company or CC is buying or selling property, the law treats it as a "legal person" — but FICA requires your conveyancer to look beyond the legal entity and identify the real human beings who own and control it.
The guiding principle for companies and close corporations under FICA is the concept of "beneficial ownership" — identifying the natural persons who, individually or together, own or exercise effective control over the entity. As a rough guide, any natural person holding 25% or more of the shares with voting rights is generally considered to have sufficient control to qualify as a beneficial owner.
The Beneficial Ownership Chain
Where no single individual holds a controlling stake, the attorney must establish who exercises effective control through other means — for example, through voting rights attached to different share classes, or through shareholder agreements. If no such person can be identified, the directors or senior management step in as the relevant natural persons to be identified.
Companies not yet registered: Signing a sale agreement in the name of a company "to be formed" creates significant legal risk. Once incorporated, the company has a limited window to ratify or reject the agreement — and the individual who signed may face personal liability in the interim.
| Documents Required |
|---|
| Full company/CC name (exactly as registered) — The name must appear in all deeds precisely as reflected on the certificate of incorporation or registration certificate — including "(Pty) Ltd" or "CC" suffixes. |
| Registration number — The CIPC registration number, exactly as it appears on the company's registration documents. |
| Certificate of incorporation / registration certificate — The founding document confirming the entity's existence and legal status. |
| Memorandum of Incorporation (or founding documents) — The company's constitutive document — reviewed to confirm whether it has authority to enter into the specific transaction being undertaken. |
| Identities of beneficial owners — Certified ID copies for all natural persons with 25%+ shareholding or effective control. Verified through the company's share register. |
| Directors' resolution — A resolution passed by the company's directors (or members, for a CC) specifically authorising the property transaction and naming who may sign documents on the entity's behalf. |
| Company/CC trust certificate — A certificate prepared by your conveyancer for signature by the representative, whose contents must be verified by the company's accounting officer or auditor. |
Section Six
FICA for Partnerships
A partnership is not a legal person in South African law — it is a group of natural persons bound by a partnership agreement. This means FICA requires the attorney to verify the individuals who make it up, not just the partnership name.
Partnerships in property transactions can take several forms: ordinary partnerships, limited partnerships (en commandite), anonymous partnerships and joint ventures. In all cases, the people behind the arrangement are the ones who must be identified and verified.
Partnership Name (If Formally Named)
If the partnership operates under a formal business name, that name must be established and recorded. Anonymous and unnamed partnerships still require full verification of all their members.
Every Partner — No Exceptions
The identity of each and every partner must be established — including sleeping partners in a limited partnership. Certified copies of ID documents are required for all of them.
Executive Control — Who Runs the Show
The natural person exercising day-to-day executive control over the partnership must be separately identified. This may or may not be the same person as the authorised signatory.
Authorised Signatory — Who Signs for the Transaction
The specific person authorised to enter into the property transaction on behalf of the partnership must be confirmed. Their authority to act must be documented — typically through a partnership resolution or signed authorisation.
Partners who are also married to each other: Where two partners in a business are also spouses, their matrimonial property regime must be considered separately from the partnership structure. Their marital status and any antenuptial contract can affect how the property is registered.
Section Seven
FICA for Foreign Nationals Buying South African Property
South African law does not prevent foreigners from owning property — but it does require that they be properly identified through alternative documentary pathways, since they do not hold South African identity documents.
A foreign national's valid passport is the primary identity document for FICA purposes. It serves the same function as a South African ID — confirming full names, nationality, and a government-issued unique identifier. The conveyancer needs a certified copy of the passport's biographical data pages.
Additionally, non-resident sellers face a special obligation under South African tax law: when a non-resident disposes of South African property for more than R2 million, the purchaser is legally required to withhold a portion of the purchase price and pay it directly to SARS as an advance against the seller's potential capital gains or income tax liability. Your conveyancer coordinates this withholding, so the tax residency status of a foreign seller must be established early in the process.
Tax residency affects the purchase price you pay: If you are purchasing from a non-resident, between 5% and 10% of the purchase price may need to be withheld and paid to SARS at registration. This is not a fee payable by the buyer — it is an advance against the seller's tax liability — but it must be factored into your transaction's financial planning.
| Documents Required |
|---|
| Valid passport — The biographical pages (photo page and any data pages) — certified copy required. Must be currently valid and not expired. |
| Proof of residential address in country of residence — A recent utility bill, bank statement or similar official document reflecting your current home address in your country of domicile. |
| South African tax number (if applicable) — Foreign nationals who have previously transacted with SARS may already have a South African tax reference number. If so, this should be provided. |
| Immigration permit / visa (if resident in South Africa) — Foreign nationals who reside in South Africa on a permit basis should provide their current valid permit confirming their lawful presence in the country. |
| Marriage documentation (if applicable) — Where a foreign national is married, the marriage certificate and any matrimonial contract must be provided. Foreign marriages are governed by the law of the country in which they were concluded, unless a choice of law was exercised. |
| Power of attorney (if signing remotely) — Foreign buyers who cannot be present to sign documents in person may grant a power of attorney — but this must be authenticated or apostilled in accordance with South African requirements and the Hague Convention. |
Section Eight
FICA for Foreign Companies & Offshore Entities
Foreign entities buying South African property face the most complex verification requirements of all. The challenge is that the documents must be sourced from overseas jurisdictions and authenticated before they can be used in South African legal proceedings.
Key distinction: A foreign company that conducts business within South Africa must register as an "external company" at the CIPC. A foreign company that merely holds property but conducts no business here may transact without such registration — confirmed via a director's certificate or affidavit.
Entity-Level Documents
| Required Documents |
|---|
| Certificate of incorporation (home country) — The document confirming the entity's existence and legal standing in its country of origin — authenticated and apostilled for South African use. |
| Certificate of external company registration (if applicable) — Where the foreign company does carry on business in South Africa and is therefore registered as an external company with the CIPC, this certificate must be provided. |
| Director's affidavit (if not an external company) — Where registration as an external company is not required, a director of the foreign company must provide an affidavit confirming this and detailing the company's limited South African footprint. |
| Founding documents / constitutional documents — The equivalent of a Memorandum of Incorporation — confirming the entity's authority to hold property in South Africa and to enter into the specific transaction. |
People Behind the Entity
| Required Documents |
|---|
| Beneficial owner identification — Natural persons who own or control the foreign entity must be identified and verified — same approach as for local companies, but often more complex in multi-layered offshore structures. |
| Directors / authorised representatives — Passports and proof of address for all directors, and specifically for whoever is authorised to act in the South African transaction. Their authority must be documented. |
| Board resolution — A resolution of the foreign entity's board authorising the property transaction in South Africa and identifying who may sign — authenticated according to the home country's requirements and apostilled if applicable. |
| Foreign prominent public official check — Where a beneficial owner is a foreign government official, a politician or a senior military or judicial figure, enhanced due diligence applies — senior management approval and source-of-funds verification are both required. |
Authentication is non-negotiable: Foreign documents must be authenticated before they carry legal weight in South Africa. If the country concerned is a signatory to the Hague Convention, the document can be apostilled. Otherwise, South African diplomatic channels must authenticate it. Unverified foreign documents will not be accepted at the Deeds Office.
Frequently Asked
Common Questions About FICA in Property Transactions
Things clients often want to know — answered plainly, without the legalese.