Delayed valuation objections results viewed as money making tactic

Property owners filed objections in April, last year, and some have not yet received their results. Since July, last year, property owners’ rates have been billed (while awaiting results) based on the new value of their properties.

Affected resident Advocate Wynand Kock said his objection related to the fact that the valuation of his property had virtually been doubled and that the new figure bore no relevance whatsoever to the prices for which comparative properties had been sold over the past three years.

“Subsequent to submitting my objection, I noted on the July statement from the municipality that I was required to forthwith pay the increased rates, which of course were also doubled,” said Kock.

He contacted the financial department at the municipality and was told that a vast number of objections had been received, but that these were being evaluated by an outside organisation which had been appointed, and that the matter would be finalised by Christmas.

“I was told that, under the circumstances, I could elect whether to continue paying the lower or proceed to pay the new rates, as this would be only for some six months, and I decided to pay the higher figure,” he said.

As nothing had been finalised by the end of 2013, he again contacted municipality and advised them that, forthwith, he would again be paying the lower rates.

“I have now received a letter in response, which, to my horror, states that the municipality is currently in the process of appointing a valuer who will deal with all the objections, and that this process will be finalised soon.

“In contrast to what I was told earlier, it is now stated that, in terms of the by-laws of the council, I am required to pay the higher rates figure.

“In the light of the afore going, it appears that the municipality sees no urgent need to attend to the ‘vast number’ of objections.”

Kock said the totally ridiculous and unfounded valuations simply take effect; the objections are left in abeyance as if disregarded, and the municipality receives the markedly increased rates to spend as they deem fit.

The City Times contacted the metro to establish the reason for the delay. Spokesman Themba Gadebe said the delay is due to server migration.

“The VA3 system migrated from the eValuations server to the Ekurhuleni Metro server during December, so the service provider (eValuations) experienced challenges with the slowness of connection to the server,” he said.

“Our ICT department is, however, attending to the matter.” Gadebe said the remaining batch of 1 430 results will be sent out to owners by the end of February.

The metro received a total of 12 430 objections for the current roll, of which 11 000 have been completed and the outcomes to owners in batches, since December.

However, Kock hopes his communication will result in all those in the same situation lodging a complaint with the council, so that the metro are compelled to attend to their obligations, properly deal with objections and not compel clients to pay rates for which there are no justification whatsoever.

“Let’s unite and fight this injustice,” he urged.