The final notice department is quite jacked up
'It is not unusual for me to receive the bill way after the due date'
BRUCE TURNER of Terenure writes:
I paid my rates and taxes account on March 1, as usual.
Unfortunately, I did not have an invoice from Ekurhuleni Municipality, so I paid the normal amount that has been charged over the last few months. It is not unusual for me to receive the bill way after the due date – that’s if I am lucky enough to get one at all.
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Sometimes I just get a final notice slip in my gate, which gives me an amount to be paid, also way after the due date.
Unbeknown to me, my due amount this month was more than average and, believe it or not, I was quickly and efficiently issued with a final notice for the outstanding amount, plus a R104.80 cost of notice charge as a bonus.
I have no problem paying municipal bills, however, it would be nice to have an amount to pay.
It seems to me that the final notice department is quite jacked up and cashing in for the municipality, who should, in actual fact, be going back to basics and sorting out the issue of residents getting their bills on time.
Another way of avoiding the cost of notice charges of R104.80 a month, on top of your bill, is to pay R2 000 to R3 000 in advance and run the account off that.
However, not everybody can afford to do that and anyway, why should we do that to protect ourselves from extra charges resulting from a municipality who can’t send out their statements on time?
