Why the offer to purchase is still signed in ink
Why the Real estate pack tracks a paper offer to purchase instead of e-signing it, and what its closing checklist follows through to registration.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Real estate businesses in South Africa
Launching soon. The Industry CRM add-on described in this article is launching soon. This article describes it as it will work at launch.
Agents notice the inconsistency quickly. The seller's mandate went out for electronic signature and came back the same afternoon. The buyer's offer, on the other hand, has to be printed, signed with a pen, scanned and couriered or carried to the seller. In a business that runs on speed, it feels like a step backwards.
It is not an oversight. South African law does not accept an electronic signature on a sale of land, and the Real estate pack in Achekam's Industry CRM is built around that rule rather than around convenience. This article explains how the pack treats the paper offer, and what its closing checklist follows from the signed offer through to registration and the commission invoice.
The rule behind the ink
Achekam's e-signatures are simple electronic signatures. Their completion certificate cites section 13 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act and states that they are not advanced electronic signatures. They are what the pack uses for the seller's mandate. Acts Online carries the text of section 13 of the ECT Act, which sets out when an electronic signature is valid and when the law requires an advanced electronic signature.
A sale of land is the exception. South African law does not accept an electronic signature on it, so an offer signed that way is not one your agency can rely on. Saving a day is not worth a sale that one party can later dispute.
If your agency uses addenda to vary an offer, such as a changed occupation date or an extended bond deadline, ask your conveyancer how those must be signed as well. The safe default is to treat anything that changes the sale the same way as the offer.
How the pack handles an ink-only document
In the industry packs, a document marked to be signed in ink is never offered for electronic signing. Its step in the workflow only tracks the paper copy. Nobody can send the offer through e-signing by mistake, because the option is simply not there for that document.
What the step tracks is the fact that the signed paper exists and has been dealt with. Keep a scan of the signed offer in Achekam's Document Centre, where files can be uploaded, previewed, tagged and searched, and where a new version keeps the earlier ones. If the offer is amended and re-signed, upload the new scan as a new version; the original stays on record.
The original paper copy still goes where it has always gone: to the conveyancer, in the way your conveyancer prefers.
The closing checklist
Once an offer is accepted, the listing is in the later part of its life: Under offer, then With the conveyancer, then Registered or let. From here, the pack's South African closing checklist covers:
| Checklist item | What your agency confirms |
|---|---|
| Buyer's FICA | The buyer's documents have been received and checked under your procedures |
| Deposit | The deposit has been paid into the trust account the offer names |
| Bond approval | The buyer's bond has been approved, where the offer depends on one |
| Compliance certificates | Certificates such as the electrical certificate are in hand |
| Lodgement | The transfer has been lodged |
| Registration | The transfer has registered |
| Commission invoice | The agency's commission has been invoiced |
The right-hand column is how an agency would normally read each item, not extra rules set by the pack.
In the Industry CRM, a record cannot move into some pipeline stages until set conditions are met, such as a customer being named, an amount being set or a signature being done. Which conditions sit on which stage of a listing is set by the pack. What matters for the agent is keeping the checklist and the pipeline telling the same story, so that nobody in the office reads a sale as further along than it really is.
Deposits, bonds and certificates
Three items on the checklist cause most of the delays in practice, and each depends on someone outside the agency.
The deposit is paid into the trust account the offer names, usually the conveyancer's or the agency's own. The pack keeps no trust account, so it records that the deposit was paid; the money and the trust records stay with whoever holds them.
Bond approval depends on the buyer's bank. A sale that hangs on a bond is fragile until approval arrives, so this is the item to watch most closely in the weeks after the offer is signed.
Compliance certificates are usually the seller's to arrange, and the electrical certificate is the one the checklist names. Ask early. A contractor who finds faults needs time to fix them, and the transfer can be held up until the certificate is issued.
The commission invoice comes last
The final item on the checklist is the commission invoice. That order is deliberate: commission is normally paid out of the proceeds on registration, so the invoice belongs at the end of the sale rather than the start. How to issue it, give the conveyancer a payment reference and record the money when it lands is covered in commission invoices paid by the conveyancer.
What to tell your agents
Explain the rule once, at a team meeting, and it stops being an irritation: the mandate can be signed electronically; the offer to purchase, and anything that changes it, is signed in ink. Put that sentence on the wall if you have to. Then show them where the closing checklist sits on each listing. The listing pipeline shows where every sale is, and the checklist shows what it is waiting for. For the paperwork that comes before the offer, see launching a listing.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
