What "not found," "ambiguous" and "failed" mean

Not found

The deeds office has no record at the address you searched. Nothing is billed. Deeds office addresses often differ from the postal address on a listing, so try the pin one building over, or search a neighbouring street number before assuming the property isn’t on record.

Ambiguous

More than one property came back near the address. You’ll land on a picker screen and choose the right one yourself — choosing it is what spends the report, not the search that found it.

Failed

The search itself broke before it could return an answer. We return your credit automatically, and you can try the address again straight away.

Pending

Still searching. We hold one of your reports against the search until it lands — found, not found, ambiguous or failed — and hand it back if nothing comes.

The status labels

On your properties list, these show as plain status text: “Report ready,” “Waiting on your choice,” “No deeds record found. Nothing was billed,” “Fetch failed. Nothing was billed,” and “Searching the deeds office.”

Next: check a pending search’s status any time at findproperly.co.za/properties.