How can I check if my mother's RDP house was sold illegally?

The long answer

There are a few questions here:

If it was sold illegally, do you mean that it was sold before your mother had lived in it for eight years? Or that someone else sold it after she had died? 

By saying that it was inherited under your name, do you mean that you were listed as a dependant in your mother’s RDP application? If you were one of the dependants named in her RDP application, this would not automatically give you the right to inherit the house, although the dependants listed in the application generally do stand a good chance to inherit the house as they are blood relations, and the government’s policy is that RDP houses should stay in the family.

This is how it works: When someone applies for an RDP house, they must either be married or living with a partner, or single but have dependants. The names of these dependants are listed by the municipality in the application. There is a lot of confusion about who the beneficiary of the house is because the dependants listed in the original application are not actually beneficiaries as such. The owner is the beneficiary of the RDP house. 

If the owner makes a will nominating someone as their heir, that person will become the legal owner of the house. But if the owner does not make a will, they are said to have died intestate, and the Intestate Succession Act of 1987 will apply in this way: if there are a surviving spouse and children, the property will be shared between them all. If there is no surviving spouse, the children will inherit in equal shares. If there is no surviving spouse or child, more distant relatives will inherit the estate. 

Whichever is the case, the first thing to do is to gather documents like your birth certificate and ID to prove that you are your mother’s child, the “happy letter” which she would have got from the municipality confirming that she was the beneficiary of the RDP house, and her death certificate. Take as many of these documents as you have to the municipality where your mother made the RDP application. They will have a file which will list the dependants that your mother – or mother and father – named, as well as a certified copy of each dependant’s birth certificate. They should also know what happened to her house.

Ask them if you would be able to claim it back, and if they say no, take careful note of the reasons they give and the name of the official you spoke to. If you are not satisfied with these reasons or their response, you could take it to the MEC for Housing (Human Settlements) in your province. The MEC has the right to review individual cases and can reverse a decision of the municipality if the MEC feels that it was an unfair decision.

You could contact the Housing Enquiries of the Department of Human Settlements at the toll-free Customer service hotline: 0800 146 873 to get the contact details of the MEC for Housing in your province.

You could also approach the Black Sash, which is an organisation that gives free paralegal advice and ask them to advise you on your rights.
These are their contact details:

Tel: 0800 110 110 

National office: 021 686 6952

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

Please Call Me: 079 835 7179

Email: [email protected] and [email protected]

If you think that you need a lawyer, you could ask Legal Aid, which is a means-tested organisation that assists people who need a lawyer but cannot afford one. These are their contact details:

Tel: 0800 110 110 (Monday to Friday 7am to 7pm) 

Please Call Me: 079 835 7179  

Email: [email protected]

Wishing you the best,
Athalie