A family home changes hands before it changes owners.

Paying the rates on a house does not make it yours. Only the name on the title deed does that, and in many families the deed and the daily reality drifted apart long ago.

It happens in an ordinary way. A grandmother moves in with her daughter, a grandson takes over the house, and over the years he pays the rates, fixes the geyser when it bursts and repaints the front wall. The neighbours call it his house. The Deeds Registry still shows her name, and nobody sees a reason to hurry while everyone is getting along and nobody is selling.

The gap only matters when the house has to do something legal. A bank will not register a bond over a property in someone else's name, so it cannot be used as security for a loan to add a room. It cannot be sold unless the registered owner signs, and if she is frail or has died, things get slower and more complicated from there. So the grandson can hold the keys and the responsibility for a decade. In law he is a guest.