{"id":583,"date":"2019-05-10T10:52:20","date_gmt":"2019-05-10T08:52:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/?p=583"},"modified":"2020-12-01T08:40:34","modified_gmt":"2020-12-01T06:40:34","slug":"first-time-off-plan-buyer-beware-of-occupational-rental","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/first-time-off-plan-buyer-beware-of-occupational-rental\/","title":{"rendered":"Blog | First Time Off-Plan Buyer? Beware of Occupational Rental"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Picture this: you are a first time property buyer, buying off-plan from a Developer \u2013 a brand new home in a secured estate and you are legally exempt from paying transfer duty. You have been saving up for this for months, maybe even years. All costs fit perfectly into your budget \u2013 the deposit, bond registration fees, and transfer fees that you mistakenly believed is the same as transfer duty, but you are wiser now. Life is good. You arrive at the transfer attorney\u2019s office, ready to sign the last of the transfer documents. You are handed a statement of account and, within the first 3 seconds of perusing it, it catches your eye \u2013 an extra R35 000.00 that you did not budget for \u2013 OCCUPATIONAL RENTAL.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Ideally, a Seller and Purchaser would agree that occupation be taken simultaneously with the registration of transfer. This eradicates the need for either party to pay occupational rental. However, it is difficult for a Developer to determine an exact date for registration. If you merely consider the large number of other role players involved, including but not limited to other Purchasers who are also buying in the development \u2013 you can only imagine the delays that could be encountered in the process of transferring all units in the a large development simultaneously.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The truth is that once the development is approved for occupation, no Developer wants to have numerous units standing vacant for one or two months. To avoid this, the Agreement of Sale includes a provision obligating Purchasers to take occupation once an Architect has issued a Certificate of Practical Completion to the Developer. By signing the Agreement of Sale, you agree to take occupation on a date stipulated by the Developer whether or not you decide to physically move in on such date. The date might not be set out in the Agreement of Sale but the Developer should notify you well in advance as to the date of occupation, this being largely dependent on the date of issue of the Certificate of Practical Completion. By implication, you agree to pay occupational rental pro rata as from the date of occupation up until the date of registration of transfer. The figure for occupational rental may be determined in relation to the market value of the property and will be confirmed in the Agreement of Sale.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">While most Estate Agents will provide full disclosure as to the costs involved in the transaction, it is advisable to guard yourself against human error. To avoid this unexpected surprise, thoroughly read your Agreement of Sale, looking out for all cost clauses and particularly, clauses relating to \u201coccupation\u201d and \u201cpossession\u201d. You must then understand that \u201coccupation\u201d refers to one physically moving into the property, while \u201cpossession\u201d entails the passing of all risk, liability and obligations, but also ownership rights in respect of the property which typically passes from Seller to Purchaser on registration of the property into the Purchaser\u2019s name.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Picture this: you are a first time property buyer, buying off-plan from a Developer \u2013 a brand new home in a secured estate and you are legally exempt from paying transfer duty. You have been saving up for this for<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":257,"featured_media":584,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Blog | First Time Off-Plan Buyer? Beware of Occupational Rental - STBB<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/first-time-off-plan-buyer-beware-of-occupational-rental\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"STBB admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stbb.co.za\\\/dev2\\\/first-time-off-plan-buyer-beware-of-occupational-rental\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stbb.co.za\\\/dev2\\\/first-time-off-plan-buyer-beware-of-occupational-rental\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"STBB admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stbb.co.za\\\/dev2\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/373f5182f1855280e5e0349100867401\"},\"headline\":\"Blog | First Time Off-Plan Buyer? Beware of Occupational Rental\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-05-10T08:52:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-12-01T06:40:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stbb.co.za\\\/dev2\\\/first-time-off-plan-buyer-beware-of-occupational-rental\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":499,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stbb.co.za\\\/dev2\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stbb.co.za\\\/dev2\\\/first-time-off-plan-buyer-beware-of-occupational-rental\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stbb.co.za\\\/dev2\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/05\\\/matt-reames-703752-unsplash-1.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Blog\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-ZA\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/stbb.co.za\\\/dev2\\\/first-time-off-plan-buyer-beware-of-occupational-rental\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stbb.co.za\\\/dev2\\\/first-time-off-plan-buyer-beware-of-occupational-rental\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stbb.co.za\\\/dev2\\\/first-time-off-plan-buyer-beware-of-occupational-rental\\\/\",\"name\":\"Blog | First Time Off-Plan Buyer? Beware of Occupational Rental - STBB\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stbb.co.za\\\/dev2\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stbb.co.za\\\/dev2\\\/first-time-off-plan-buyer-beware-of-occupational-rental\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stbb.co.za\\\/dev2\\\/first-time-off-plan-buyer-beware-of-occupational-rental\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stbb.co.za\\\/dev2\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/05\\\/matt-reames-703752-unsplash-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-05-10T08:52:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-12-01T06:40:34+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stbb.co.za\\\/dev2\\\/first-time-off-plan-buyer-beware-of-occupational-rental\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-ZA\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/stbb.co.za\\\/dev2\\\/first-time-off-plan-buyer-beware-of-occupational-rental\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-ZA\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stbb.co.za\\\/dev2\\\/first-time-off-plan-buyer-beware-of-occupational-rental\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stbb.co.za\\\/dev2\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/05\\\/matt-reames-703752-unsplash-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stbb.co.za\\\/dev2\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/05\\\/matt-reames-703752-unsplash-1.jpg\",\"width\":3088,\"height\":4632},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stbb.co.za\\\/dev2\\\/first-time-off-plan-buyer-beware-of-occupational-rental\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stbb.co.za\\\/dev2\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Blog\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stbb.co.za\\\/dev2\\\/category\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Blog | First Time Off-Plan Buyer? Beware of Occupational Rental\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stbb.co.za\\\/dev2\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stbb.co.za\\\/dev2\\\/\",\"name\":\"STBB\",\"description\":\"Welcome to STBB - We deal with every legal matter\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stbb.co.za\\\/dev2\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stbb.co.za\\\/dev2\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-ZA\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stbb.co.za\\\/dev2\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"STBB\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stbb.co.za\\\/dev2\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-ZA\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stbb.co.za\\\/dev2\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stbb.co.za\\\/dev2\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/06\\\/STBB_logo_2025.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stbb.co.za\\\/dev2\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/06\\\/STBB_logo_2025.png\",\"width\":218,\"height\":66,\"caption\":\"STBB\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stbb.co.za\\\/dev2\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/company\\\/thebigsmallfirm\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stbb.co.za\\\/dev2\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/373f5182f1855280e5e0349100867401\",\"name\":\"STBB admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-ZA\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/01ff5983d7912cf59ffb46046f106cd4563070d061b8debafb64bf68e93b6729?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/01ff5983d7912cf59ffb46046f106cd4563070d061b8debafb64bf68e93b6729?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/01ff5983d7912cf59ffb46046f106cd4563070d061b8debafb64bf68e93b6729?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"STBB admin\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/stbb.co.za\\\/dev2\\\/author\\\/stbb-admin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Blog | First Time Off-Plan Buyer? Beware of Occupational Rental - STBB","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/first-time-off-plan-buyer-beware-of-occupational-rental\/","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"STBB admin","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/first-time-off-plan-buyer-beware-of-occupational-rental\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/first-time-off-plan-buyer-beware-of-occupational-rental\/"},"author":{"name":"STBB admin","@id":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/#\/schema\/person\/373f5182f1855280e5e0349100867401"},"headline":"Blog | First Time Off-Plan Buyer? Beware of Occupational Rental","datePublished":"2019-05-10T08:52:20+00:00","dateModified":"2020-12-01T06:40:34+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/first-time-off-plan-buyer-beware-of-occupational-rental\/"},"wordCount":499,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/first-time-off-plan-buyer-beware-of-occupational-rental\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/matt-reames-703752-unsplash-1.jpg","articleSection":["Blog"],"inLanguage":"en-ZA","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/first-time-off-plan-buyer-beware-of-occupational-rental\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/first-time-off-plan-buyer-beware-of-occupational-rental\/","url":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/first-time-off-plan-buyer-beware-of-occupational-rental\/","name":"Blog | First Time Off-Plan Buyer? Beware of Occupational Rental - STBB","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/first-time-off-plan-buyer-beware-of-occupational-rental\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/first-time-off-plan-buyer-beware-of-occupational-rental\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/matt-reames-703752-unsplash-1.jpg","datePublished":"2019-05-10T08:52:20+00:00","dateModified":"2020-12-01T06:40:34+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/first-time-off-plan-buyer-beware-of-occupational-rental\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-ZA","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/first-time-off-plan-buyer-beware-of-occupational-rental\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-ZA","@id":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/first-time-off-plan-buyer-beware-of-occupational-rental\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/matt-reames-703752-unsplash-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/matt-reames-703752-unsplash-1.jpg","width":3088,"height":4632},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/first-time-off-plan-buyer-beware-of-occupational-rental\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Blog","item":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/category\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Blog | First Time Off-Plan Buyer? Beware of Occupational Rental"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/#website","url":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/","name":"STBB","description":"Welcome to STBB - We deal with every legal matter","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-ZA"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/#organization","name":"STBB","url":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-ZA","@id":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/STBB_logo_2025.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/STBB_logo_2025.png","width":218,"height":66,"caption":"STBB"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/thebigsmallfirm"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/#\/schema\/person\/373f5182f1855280e5e0349100867401","name":"STBB admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-ZA","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/01ff5983d7912cf59ffb46046f106cd4563070d061b8debafb64bf68e93b6729?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/01ff5983d7912cf59ffb46046f106cd4563070d061b8debafb64bf68e93b6729?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/01ff5983d7912cf59ffb46046f106cd4563070d061b8debafb64bf68e93b6729?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"STBB admin"},"url":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/author\/stbb-admin\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/matt-reames-703752-unsplash-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/257"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3225,"href":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583\/revisions\/3225"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stbb.co.za\/dev2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}