The File Is the Promise

A transfer attorney's secretary spends much of the week chasing documents that should have arrived with the sale, and a complete file from an agent changes that day. It holds the offer signed by everyone who had to sign, every page initialled and every annexure attached. It has the seller's bond account number, so cancellation figures can be requested from the bank at once, and FICA documents for both parties along with their marital status, because a spouse married in community of property usually has to consent to the sale. The electrical inspection is booked and noted. Work can start that afternoon.

An incomplete file arrives as a phone number and a promise to send the rest, and the next fortnight goes on follow ups. The buyer calls to ask why nothing is moving, and the seller starts wondering whether anyone is in charge. Clients almost never see the file itself, yet they feel its condition in the speed of every step that follows, and it is the one place where a promise to handle a sale properly can be checked by somebody else, today by the attorney and perhaps one day by the regulator.