Geyser To SANS 10254
The hot water cylinder has to meet SANS 10252 and SANS 10254: a drip tray, vacuum breakers, and the safety valve and overflow pipes running to the outside.
Home / Plumbing Certificate Of Compliance
A plumbing certificate of compliance in Durbanville must reach the City before your house can transfer, and only a City-registered plumber can sign it. We are PIRB Licensed and on the City's register, so we inspect the seven checks, fix what fails and sign it for your conveyancer.
Tell us about the property and when transfer is expected, and we will call you back with the price of the inspection before we book it.
Every item on the City's certificate form, in plain terms. A moving meter and a dripping tap are separate boxes on the form but the same question, so they share a card.
The hot water cylinder has to meet SANS 10252 and SANS 10254: a drip tray, vacuum breakers, and the safety valve and overflow pipes running to the outside.
Water pipes properly saddled as SANS 10252 requires, with the roof space singled out on the form, so they are fixed in place rather than hanging loose.
The meter has to record flow when a tap is open and stand still when everything is shut, and no tap or fitting may leak when it is off.
The private isolating valve the Water By-law requires, on your side of the meter or just inside the boundary, has to be in place and working.
Gutters and downpipes must not discharge into the sewer. The Wastewater By-law prohibits it, and the City's form cites that by-law by section.
No cross connection between the municipal supply and a borehole, wellpoint, greywater or rainwater system, however it was plumbed in.
The plumbing certificate is a City of Cape Town rule, not a national one. Section 14 of the City's Water By-law puts it on the seller: no transfer until a registered plumber has certified the water installation against the National Building Regulations and the by-law itself. Durbanville sits inside the City of Cape Town, so the rule applies to every sale here, freehold and sectional title alike. The conveyancing attorney emails the completed certificate to the City, and a City water inspector checks selected properties.
Registered has a specific meaning. The by-law defines a registered plumber as one on the register the City keeps and publishes, which is a separate thing from a plumber's PIRB licence. We hold both: PIRB Licensed, and listed on the City of Cape Town's register of plumbers. You can check any plumber against the City's published register and on the PIRB website before you book anyone.
What the certificate covers is narrower than its name suggests. The City's form has seven boxes: the geyser installation, pipes saddled in the roof, a meter that stands still when nothing is drawn, a working private isolating valve, no leaking taps or fittings, no stormwater into the sewer, and no cross connection with another water supply. The City is explicit that the certificate vouches for those boxes and nothing else; it is not a general quality check on the house. Blocked drains, the waste pipes from basins and baths, appliance connections and irrigation all sit outside it.
That has a practical consequence when the quote arrives. Every repair on a COC quote should map to one of the seven boxes, and we itemise ours against the form so you can see which line belongs to which check. Work outside them, a tired mixer that does not drip or an old pipe that is not leaking, may still be worth doing, but it is a separate decision at a separate price, and the certificate does not depend on it.
The geyser is the box with the most detail behind it. SANS 10254 calls for a drip tray with its overflow piped outside, vacuum breakers on the hot and cold supply, and the safety valve and expansion valve overflows piped separately to the outside. When a resident asked the City whether a plumber signing a certificate must make sure there is a drip tray and drain pipe, the City answered that the requirement is necessary and cannot be overlooked. If your geyser was replaced without those parts, that box is where the work will be.
Before you list: close every tap and watch the meter, fix dripping taps and running cisterns, look at where each downpipe ends, and check that the geyser has a drip tray with its overflow pipes running outside. Then book the inspection at listing stage rather than waiting for the transfer date, so any repairs happen on your timetable instead of your buyer's. If the property has a borehole or wellpoint, the by-law also requires it to be registered with the City, with the City's sign on display, and kept entirely separate from the municipal supply.
PIRB Licensed and on the City of Cape Town's register of plumbers, so the certificate we sign is the one your conveyancer needs.
The certificate is a small part of a sale, but it sits on the path to transfer. These are the three things worth knowing before you sign the offer to purchase.
The by-law puts the duty on the seller, and the seller normally pays for the certificate. Who pays for repairs follows the sale agreement, so read that clause before you sign.
Cape Town conveyancers recommend the inspection at listing stage, so you know what any repairs involve while there is still time to plan them.
A certificate is needed on every change of ownership, and the parties cannot agree to waive it. One from the previous sale does not carry over.
There are two parts to the cost: the inspection and certificate, and any repairs needed to pass. The inspection depends on the size of the property, how many bathrooms and fittings it has, and how easily the geyser and the meter can be reached, so we give you the figure before we come out. If something fails, the repairs are quoted separately and itemised against the seven checks on the City's form, so you can see exactly what each one is for. Nothing outside those seven is needed for the certificate, and we will not bundle it in.
The seller. Responsibility sits with the seller under the by-law, and in practice the seller pays the plumber too. Who pays for any repairs is set by the sale agreement, so read that clause before you sign the offer to purchase. The conveyancing attorney then emails the completed certificate to the City.
No. The by-law requires a registered plumber, meaning one on the register the City of Cape Town keeps and publishes. That register is separate from PIRB, the plumbing industry's professional body. We are on both: PIRB Licensed, and on the City's register of plumbers. You can check any plumber against the City's published register and on the PIRB website before you book.
They are two different documents. The City's certificate is the one needed when a property is sold: it covers the seven checks on the City's form and reaches the City through your conveyancer. A PIRB certificate of compliance is issued by a PIRB Licensed Plumber for plumbing work they have done, and PIRB requires one for any geyser, solar or heat pump work and for most other work over R1,500. If repairs are needed to pass the City's inspection, the repair work is certified separately under PIRB's rules.
The by-law sets no validity period. What it does require is a certificate before each transfer, and conveyancers treat it that way: a certificate from a previous sale does not carry over, and the parties to a sale cannot agree to do without one. If a sale falls through and you relist months later, ask your conveyancer whether they will accept the existing certificate before booking another inspection.
Nothing is signed until it passes. The City's process is that the plumber inspects, carries out any remedial work and then signs the certificate. We tell you which of the seven checks failed and why, quote the repair, and sign once the installation complies. If a repair is a large one, such as re-routing a downpipe that runs into the sewer, you will have the quote in writing before anything is done.
Not drains or the pool. Blocked drains, the waste pipes from basins and baths, appliance connections, and pool or irrigation installations all sit outside the certificate. A hidden leak is a different story: the meter has to stand still with every tap shut, so a leak under the floor fails the meter check even though nobody can see it. If that happens, leak detection in Durbanville traces it before anything is opened up.
Yes. The requirement applies to freehold and sectional title property alike, so selling a flat or a townhouse in a Durbanville complex needs one too. The inspection covers the installation serving your unit. Installations on the common property, such as shared pipes, outside taps and irrigation, are the body corporate's responsibility.
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Selling your home? Tell us the address and the expected transfer date, and we will phone back with the inspection price and the first open slot.