Deceased Estates in Johannesburg

Johannesburg

Address

66 Marshall Street, Hollard Building, Johannesburg

Phone

011 429 8000

Province

Gauteng

Verified 15 August 2026 against the Department of Justice. Phone before you travel - these details do change.

What tends to hold estates up in Johannesburg

• The Johannesburg office serves the southern Gauteng area. If the deceased lived in Pretoria, Centurion or the north of the province, the estate goes to the Pretoria office instead, not to Johannesburg.
• Jurisdiction follows where the deceased lived for the 12 months before death, not where the family lives now and not where the assets are. A Johannesburg family winding up a parent's estate in Polokwane reports it in Polokwane.
• Volume at this office is high. Lodge a complete file, get your estate reference number at lodgement, and follow up in writing on the same email thread so there is a record.
• Municipal rates clearance on Johannesburg property is a common cause of delay at the transfer stage. Keep the City of Johannesburg account paid throughout the administration rather than settling arrears at the end.

Finding an estate attorney in Johannesburg

We do not publish a list of firms. We cannot verify a firm's current standing, its fees, or whether it still does estate work, and a stale directory is worse than none for somebody who has just lost a family member. What we can do is point you at the regulator's own register, which is authoritative and current.

• The Legal Practice Council runs a public practitioner search at lpc.org.za/members-of-the-public/search-practitioners. Use it to confirm that anyone you are considering is actually on the practising roll.
• The Law Society of South Africa has a Find a Legal Practitioner directory at lssa.org.za/find-a-legal-practitioner.
• Ask for the firm's current Fidelity Fund certificate. Any attorney practising for their own account and handling trust money must hold one. If there is no valid certificate, the Legal Practitioners Fidelity Fund cannot consider a claim, which is exactly the protection you are relying on.
• The Master's office itself will assist members of the public with the reporting process, at no charge. For a straightforward estate, particularly a small one, that may be all the help you need.

What to ask before you appoint anyone

1. What executor's fee will you charge, as a percentage? The statutory maximum is 3.5% of gross assets plus 6% of post-death income. It is a ceiling, not a price, and it is negotiable.
2. Is VAT charged on top of that?
3. What else will be charged separately - conveyancing, tax returns, an administration fee?
4. Who will actually handle the file, and what happens if that person leaves?
5. How often will beneficiaries be updated, and by whom?
6. Get all of it in writing before you commit.

Work out what the tariff comes to on this estate before you have that conversation: executor's fees calculator. And if the estate is under R250 000 gross, read small estates first - you very likely do not need to pay anyone a percentage at all.

Start here

Other cities