City refuses to refund resident

Dawn de Villiers (66) is infuriated by the City of Johannesburg and local councillors after she sold her home in Montgomery Park in 2010.

“For five months following the transfer of my property into the new owner’s name, and me having closed my account with the City of Johannesburg, I continued to be billed for the electricity and water consumption and other related services of the new occupants of the house,” says a frustrated de Villiers.

De Villiers says on numerous occasions she contacted the City of Johannesburg and was given different information each time. It took her almost two years to finally get the matter partially sorted out.

“The billing issue was fixed but my account with the City was already on credit for the time they incorrectly billed me and no one seems to care to fix that,” she says.

“I am now another two years further down the line. I have made dozens of phone calls to the call-centre and written numerous emails, all to no effect, to have my credit balance refunded to me.”

In sheer desperation, de Villiers contacted the ward councillor for Montgomery Park, Patricia Brugman-Richards who promised to help.

“I have subsequently sent Pat Richards numerous emails, some of which she has graced with a reply, others she has ignored. But still Johannesburg City Council is sitting with my money. Clearly, Pat Richards is a hopelessly ineffectual ward councillor,” complains de Villiers.

“To say that I am furious, would be an understatement. I have reached the point where I feel like laying a charge of theft against the City of Johannesburg, because this is what it amounts to,” she adds.

Councillor Patricia Brugman-Richard says she has done everything in her power to resolve the matter and will continue to find new avenues to rectify the situation. In an email in correspondence with de Villiers, Richards said “Unfortunately yours is not the only billing problem that I receive, the Revenue Department is supposed to contact the resident and deal with the matter. They do not come back to the councillor.”

Richards says the Revenue Department has not given her a response and she has sent the matter to Councillor Makhubo, the MMC for Finance.

De Villiers is however still not convinced as she has also sent a letter to the office of Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille, yet, her matter has not been resolved.

“I would be very interested to know how many millions of rands are owed to customers who cannot get a refund out of the City and how much interest the City of Johannesburg is earning from their dishonesty,” concludes de Villiers.

Have you been in a similar situation?