My late mother was registered for an RDP house. Do her children have a claim to this house?

The long answer

Thank you for your email asking if the children can claim the RDP house your mother registered for before she passed away.

If your mother had actually received the house, she could leave it to the children, but if she was still on the waiting list to get a house, her registration would automatically fall away. You can’t take up anyone’s place on the waiting list when they pass away.

The children would need to make their own applications for RDP houses, if they qualified. Below is what you need to qualify and how to apply:

To qualify for an RDP house you must meet the National Housing Subsidy Scheme criteria. This means you must be:

1. A South African citizen
2. Over 21 and mentally competent to sign a contract
3. Married or living with a partner, or single and have dependants (single military veterans or aged people without dependents also qualify)
4. Earn less than R3,500 per month per household (so if two people in your family earn and these earnings amount to more than R3,500 per month you will not qualify)
5. A first time government subsidy recipient
6. A first time home owner

If you are disabled you are supposed to be given preference and your house is supposed to be adapted to meet your needs.

To apply for a government subsidy house take the following documents to a provincial office of the Department of Human Settlements, or your municipal offices:

1. Applicant and spouse’s identity documents (green book or ID card)
2. Certified copies of birth certificates of children
3. Proof of income if working, e.g. salary slip

You will be asked to fill in a housing subsidy application form. Depending on your province or municipality, you will then be registered on the National Housing Needs Register or your Municipal Housing Demands Database. This is a “waiting list”. Once the project is finalised and the houses built, you will be given keys and a title deed to your home, but it can take many years.

It is illegal to sell an RDP house before you’ve lived in it for eight years. It is illegal to rent out an RDP house.

To check how far you are on the waiting list for a house call 0800 146 873 or go to your municipality’s website.