Official valuer to address appeals

LYDENBURG – Up until recently residents had the opportunity to lodge objections against Thaba Chweu Municipality with regard to property valuations.

Mr Leon de Jager, chairman of the AfriForum Lydenburg branch, told the newspaper he had spoken to the valuers, namely Valuers Africa, in order to find out what they were doing with regard to the written objections lodged against the property values per the latest Valuers Roll of TCM.

“According to Valuers Africa they are in the process of corresponding with all the residents and business that have objected, and you should be receiving these letters within the next few days.

Obviously we will not know what the content of these letters are, and if your objection has been addressed to your satisfaction, until you have received the letters.

He explained that the valuer did the valuation and the owners were then notified, or had read the new valuations on the valuation role at TCM. “If you were in disagreement with the valuation, you had the opportunity to appeal against it, which you did do.

The appointed valuer now has the responsibility to address each appeal received, and a copy of each of these letters must be sent to TCM. Should the valuer have adjusted your property’s value, but it is still more than 10 per cent higher than your previous value, TCM must, and have a legal obligation to notify the Provincial Appeal Board of all such cases.”

He said that the Provincial Appeal Board must then set a date to address all these appeals. “Should the board decide to revalue (value down) your property’s value, they will make the ruling, and TCM must then accept its ruling.

Should TCM in the meantime have implemented the role values, they must address these per the board’s ruling and do the necessary corrections on the affected accounts. My advice to those who have appealed is to keep on paying your current rates until the appeal process have been concluded.”