The Durban Master’s Office does something none of the other offices do: it publishes its own checklist for reporting a deceased estate. If you are reporting an estate here, read that checklist before doing anything else, because it tells you exactly which documents the office expects and it is the difference between one visit and three. The office closes to the public at 13h00, so the practical window is a morning one. Durban also publishes a Docex address, which lets attorneys and executors lodge documents without attending in person. One point of navigation: the office is on the second floor at 2 Devonshire Place, reached off Anton Lembede Street, which older maps and correspondence still call Smith Street. If you are searching for it by the old street name you will still find the right place.
Official branch contact route
- Switchboard: 031 327 0600
- Office email: [email protected]
- Postal address: Private Bag X54325, Durban, 4000
- Docex: Master of the KwaZulu-Natal High Court, DOCEX 218, Durban
Use the office mailbox rather than an individual’s address where you can. A shared inbox is not affected by a particular official being on leave or moving post, which matters on an estate that stays open for months.
Location and operating information
- Physical address: 2nd Floor, 2 Devonshire Place, off Anton Lembede Street (formerly Smith Street), Durban, 4001
- Public office hours: 07h45 to 13h00
There is no afternoon public session, so a visit has to happen in the morning. Aim to arrive early rather than close to the 13h00 cut-off, particularly if you are reporting an estate for the first time and the office needs to check a set of original documents against its checklist while you are there.
Services at this location
Durban handles the Master’s full range of work — deceased estates, insolvent estates and liquidations, the registration and supervision of trusts, curators and tutors, and the Guardian’s Fund. Its published estate-reporting checklist makes deceased estates the most visible stream here, though it does not limit what the office covers. Whether Durban is the correct office for an estate depends on where the deceased was living in the twelve months before death; KwaZulu-Natal has a second Master’s Office at Pietermaritzburg, so the two are not interchangeable. Terminated and dormant trust documents go to the central mailboxes [email protected] and [email protected] instead of to this office.
Parent organisation and escalation
This office belongs to the Master of the High Court within the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development. A complaint is raised with the Assistant Master dealing with the matter, then the Deputy Master, then the Head of Office, and only then with the Office of the Chief Master on 012 406 4804. Any Magistrate’s Office can act as a service point for the Master, a designation that has applied since 5 December 2002.
Sources
The switchboard number, office mailbox, postal, physical and Docex addresses, office hours and the existence of the estate-reporting checklist were read from the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development’s official Master contacts page at justice.gov.za on 30 August 2026. Nothing has been taken from a directory. The department warns that chiefmaster.co.za is not an official Master’s website. Confirm against justice.gov.za before travelling.