Property owners in Johannesburg beware: DA offers assistance
The City of Johannesburg has announced that it is compiling a Supplementary Valuation Roll for the year 2012 which, according to information gleaned from the City's Valuations Department, will affect some 83 000 property owners in the City, many of them to their detriment. Many owners will learn that their property values have been increased for rating purposes and herein lies the sting.
Notices to owners have been sent by post, and the recent postal strike my well have prevented owners from receiving them. The deadline date for submitting objections is 29th June, 2012; be alert and clear your post boxes regularly. The Democratic Alliance has made representations to the City to extend the deadline date to prevent hardship and prejudice to would be objectors.
The sting, a painful one indeed, is that the Valuations Department now has not just inflated, but hyper-inflated, property values from their 2008 values [the date of the last General Valuation] to levels which bear not the least resemblance to the current market values. The 2008 values related to actual property values at the height of the property boom. The values now being assigned, according to reports reaching me, vary from 75% to 150% to 300% above the 2008 values, ignoring the fact that from 2008 property values actually dropped and are only now beginning a slow recovery to 2008 levels.
Property owners have the right to object to the values assigned to their properties and to indicate what they believe is the correct value. This will only be credible if they submit together with their objections a letter from an estate agent with experience of property values in that neighbourhood which supports the objection.
Another sting still lies ahead. Even if the objection succeeds, if the Municipal Valuer reduces the assigned value by more than 100%, it is compulsory for this decision to be reviewed by the Valuation Appeal Board. The practice of the City of Johannesburg in the past has been not to notify the affected owner of this, so reviews have taken place in the absence of and without the knowledge of the owner. Many months after learning that his objection has succeeded, the owner receives a new rates account reflecting a higher value to his property and thus a larger rates bill.
The notice itself, and review in the absence of the owner, fall foul of the Constitution and the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act. For these reasons, and in order to assist those persons who submit objections, a letter has been prepared which objectors should deliver to the City together with the objection. It can be obtained by contacting your DA Councillor, contact details available online at www.dajhb.co.za
DA Ward Councillors will be circulating this release and the letter to neighbourhood resident associations.
Statement issued by John Mendlesohn, DA Shadow MMC: MPAC, June 7 2012
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