Transfer Inspections
The installation checked against the clause in your offer to purchase, with a written list of anything that fails rather than a verbal assurance.
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Plumbing certificate of compliance work in Alberton starts with your sale agreement, not the plumbing, because outside Cape Town it is the contract rather than a by-law that creates the requirement. We read the clause, inspect against it, price any defect line by line, and certify once the installation passes.
Tell us what the certificate is for and when transfer is due. If it is for a sale, send the plumbing clause from the offer to purchase as well, because that sets the scope.
For a sale the inspection follows your agreement's wording. For new work the certificate follows the job.
The installation checked against the clause in your offer to purchase, with a written list of anything that fails rather than a verbal assurance.
Every tap closed and the meter watched for movement, so a hidden loss shows up in the inspection rather than on the buyer's first bill.
Tray, overflow, valves, vacuum breakers and isolator measured against SANS 10254, the same list our geyser installation work is built to.
Downpipes and yard gullies checked for rainwater running into the sewer, an item sale clauses can name on its own.
Anything that fails is priced line by line, so you know what passing will cost before you agree to any of it.
Geysers, solar geyser installation, heat pumps and new plumbing certified on completion, as the PIRB requires of its licensed plumbers.
Buyers, sellers, agents and attorneys all say "plumbing certificate", and in South Africa at least two different documents answer to it. Working out which one your transaction needs is the first job, because certifying the wrong thing well is still certifying the wrong thing.
The first is the PIRB Certificate of Compliance. The Plumbing Industry Registration Board describes it as a self-certification and declaration by a licensed plumber that the work they undertook meets the standard, and its rule is that one is issued on all plumbing work a licensed plumber does, from geysers to solar water installations and heat pumps. It speaks for a job. A certificate from a geyser replaced five years ago says that installation was compliant on the day it was signed off, and says nothing about the rest of the house.
The second is a certificate about the whole water installation, issued when a property changes hands. The City of Cape Town makes one compulsory under its water by-law, and its wording is a useful picture of what such a certificate covers: the plumber certifies, among other things, that there are no defects which can cause water to run to waste and that the water meter registers. Outside Cape Town the requirement arrives a different way. Including the certificate in the offer to purchase is becoming common practice, and Midvaal, another Gauteng municipality, puts the legal position plainly: PIRB and IOPSA certificates are not mandatory unless a council policy, a by-law or a contract requires one.
So in an Alberton sale, the clause is the scope. A clause asking for the installation to comply with the National Building Regulations and the by-laws asks for more than one that only wants the meter to register and nothing running to waste, and a clause that names stormwater discharging into the sewer adds a walk around the yard with a hose. The same clause is where to look for who pays, and by when. None of that is visible from the street, and all of it changes what the inspection involves.
Send us the clause before you book anything. Photograph the plumbing paragraph of the offer to purchase and send it with your request. It tells us what has to be inspected, which tells you what the inspection costs, and it stops anyone certifying against a list your attorney never asked for.
Four things that make a certificate job quick, and none of them cost anything to find.
Scoped by the paperwork, priced before any work, and checkable after it.
The inspection is scoped to the wording your attorney will check, with nothing added to pad it.
Each defect listed with its fix and its price, so passing is a known number before you commit.
Tell us the date and any repairs are scheduled straight behind the inspection, not after it.
PIRB certificates are logged with the board and can be checked on its own website.
Cost, who pays, what is checked, and which certificate a sale actually needs.
It depends on what the clause asks for, which is why we ask to see it before quoting. The inspection is one figure, set by the scope the agreement names and the size of the property. Anything that fails is a separate line with its own price, so a house that passes first time costs the inspection and nothing else. How we build a price, and what we will quote over the phone, is set out on our plumbing prices page.
Not because of a law that applies to every sale. The certificate is compulsory on transfer in the City of Cape Town, where its water by-law requires it. Elsewhere, putting it into the offer to purchase is becoming common practice, and once it is in your signed agreement it binds you like any other condition. Midvaal, another Gauteng municipality, states the general position plainly: PIRB and IOPSA certificates are not mandatory unless a council policy, a by-law or a contract requires one. So the first place to look is your signed agreement.
The usual guidance is that the seller pays for the compliance certificates, and the agreement is what settles it. Read the plumbing clause for two things: who carries the cost of the inspection, and who carries the cost of any work needed to pass. Check too whether that work is capped, because the wording is what your attorney will hold you to.
Whatever the clause names, and a thorough inspection covers this ground. Every tap closed and the meter watched, because a dial that moves with nothing open is water running to waste. Dripping taps, cisterns that never stop filling and weeping valves. The meter itself, to confirm it registers. The geyser, against the SANS 10254 requirements for its tray, overflow, valves and vacuum breakers. And downpipes and yard gullies, where a clause asks that no stormwater discharges into the sewer.
You get a written list of what failed, what each item needs and what each one costs, and nothing is touched until you agree to it. A failure can be as small as a cistern valve, a dripping tap or a missing vacuum breaker. Once the work is done the installation is checked again and the certificate is issued. If the transfer date is close, tell us when you book so the repairs can be scheduled behind the inspection rather than after it.
Only if the clause asks for nothing more than that geyser. The Plumbing Industry Registration Board describes its certificate as a declaration by a licensed plumber about the work they undertook, so a certificate from a geyser replacement covers that replacement on the day it was signed off. If the agreement wants the whole water installation certified, the rest of the house still needs inspecting. Keep the old certificate anyway: it answers the geyser part of the question, and PIRB certificates can be checked on the board's own website.
Because the requirement comes from the agreement, so does any time limit. Check whether the clause asks for a certificate issued within a set period before transfer. If it is silent, remember what the certificate is: a statement about the installation on the day it was inspected. A tap that starts dripping a month later is not covered by it, which is why it makes sense to book the inspection once the offer is signed rather than months before you list.
No, and a sale can need all three. The electrical certificate is the one regulation requires of every homeowner, sale or no sale, and an electrician issues it; the geyser's isolator and wiring fall under that one, not this one. A house that runs gas needs a gas certificate of conformity from a registered gas installer, which our gas installations page explains. This one speaks only for the pipes, the fittings and the water heating.
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Need a plumbing certificate for an Alberton sale or for new work? Send the details and, for a sale, the plumbing clause from the offer to purchase, and you will get a scoped price back at no charge.