Apply In-Person:

1. To apply for Transferring Ownership of Ship by Sale in person, the applicant has to visit the office of the South African Maritime Safety Authority.
2. The contact details of the South African Maritime Safety Authority can be found in the following link: Link
3. Visit the office and obtain a Declaration of Transfer form as required from the relevant department. Or click here to download: Link
4. Make sure that you have all the documents listed in the “Required documents” section of this page.
5. Now, complete the form with appropriate information under relevant sections. Attest it with your signature once completed.
6. Then, pay the applicable fees as directed to the relevant bank account. Find the information regarding payment in the office website or contact the office.
7. After paying the fees, attach all the required documents with the completed application and submit it to the relevant official at the office.
8. Then, the application will be forwarded to the concerned authorities for further verification processes.
9. Once the verification and validation processes are over, the application will be approved and the officials will proceed to take required steps for the Ship Ownership Transfer process.

Please refer the following document for checklist of required documents to be attached with the application form: Link

South African Maritime Safety Authority - Head Office,
Physical Adress : 146,Lunnon Road,
Cnr Jan Shoba&Lunnon Roads,
Hillcrest, 0183.
Pretoria , South Africa
Postal Address : P.O. Box 13186 ,
Hatfield,Gauteng,South Africa
Tel: +27 (0) 12 366 2600
Fax: +27 (0) 12 366 2601.
Website:Contact link

South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) branches

South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) Emergency Contacts

• Any entity, that holds the ownership of a ship and wants to transfer the ownership by selling the ship to another person, can apply.
• The applying entity might be an individual, a company, close corporation or a trust.

• Please approach the authorities for fees details.
  

Explain the time until which the certificate/document is valid.
e.g. Birth Certificate Valid Forever

• Declaration of Transfer form: Link
  
• Bill of Sale: Link
  
• Check Sheet: Link
  
• Any other document to be used can be downloaded from the following page (as applicable): Link
  

Please attach sample completed documents that would help other people.

Please explain processing time taken in obtaining the document/certificate.

Videos explaining the procedure or to fill the applications.
Attach videos using the following tag <&video type='website'>video ID|width|height<&/video&> from external websites.
Please remove the '&' inside the tags during implementation.
Website = allocine, blip, dailymotion, facebook, gametrailers, googlevideo, html5, metacafe, myspace, revver,
sevenload, viddler, vimeo, youku, youtube
width = 560, height = 340, Video ID = Can be obtained from the URL of webpage where the video is displayed.
e.gIn the following url 'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0US7oR_t3M' Video ID is 'Y0US7oR_t3M'.

• It is important that the completed form must contain all the information required properly and the form must be filled legibly, in order to get accepted by the Authority.

• In case of more than one ownerships (Individual or joint), each owner must complete a separate application form.

• Official number
• International Maritime Organisation number
• Ship registration number and date
• Applicant name and address details
• Banking details
• Signatory’s name and capacity

• An owner of a registered ship inside South Africa must complete a transfer declaration to notify the South African Maritime Safety Authority when he/she wants to transfer the ownership by selling the ship to another person.
  

• Refer ‘Transfer of ship’ section in the following document for more information: Link
  

Please explain what are other uses of obtaining this document/certificate.
e.g. Birth Certificate can be used as proof of identity.

• Link
  

More information which might help people.