City urges residents to object online after complaints are made of property value increases
Resident loses his pension rates rebate when his property value goes up 2.5 times what it was worth nine years ago.
The City of Johannesburg has encouraged residents who are unhappy with valuations of their properties to object online.
This follows Sundowner resident David Strachan complaining about the valuation of his property going up to 2.5 times the amount it was worth in 2014, which caused him to lose the rates rebate he had been receiving as a pensioner.
“It’s a double whammy: Higher rates and also no rebate. This can force someone to sell their house,” said Strachan.
Nine years ago, his municipal valuation came to R1 million. When new valuations were released he said he was outraged to see his valuation had increased by 50% to R1.5 million.
“I immediately put in an objection because all my neighbours had a much lower increase and they had swimming pools, cottages and more. A couple of months later, the result of my objection came out and they increased the valuation to R1.8 million. I had effectively been punished for daring to object.”
Four years later, the new valuations came and, again the valuation went up, but this time not so much (up by R89 000 to a total R1.89 million).
While high, this meant Strachan still qualified for the rates rebate for pensioners (valuations less than R2.5 million).
Yet the valuation since changed again, sky-rocketing to R2 755 000 – an increase of R865 000, just under 46%.
“I have checked my immediate neighbour’s valuations and they have only gone up by roughly 10% to 15%. What disturbs me is that I read that if they adjust my valuation by more than 10%, which they should because they increased me by 46%, then my case will automatically be forwarded to the appeals process which will delay the process by months. All of this is grossly unfair.”
Ward 134 councillor Devon Steenkamp said many residents have experienced increased valuations and he would recommend they object to these with reasons, if they feel these are unfair or unusually high.
In response, City of Johannesburg spokesperson Nthatisi Modingoane said, “Not being able to investigate the specific property, general reasons can be: The property attributes used can be incorrect resulting in an incorrect value, previous valuation could have been incorrect, administrative error of capturing incorrect information.”
He suggested the online objection process be followed, which Strachan has done and is awaiting feedback on.
“With an average of more than 3 000 daily users on the GVR2023 [general valuation roll] online system, the majority are those who have opted to use the system from remotely, rather than physically visit any of the selected 13 customer service centres,” Modingoane added.
“Interested parties have until March 31 at 15:00 to object against any category or new values of their properties.”
Kgamanyane Maphologela, the spokesperson for the City’s group finance department, said the City has noticed more people embracing the online system over the traditional walk-in customer service centres to log their objections.
“We continue to urge our residents not to wait until it’s too late, to object to categories and new values of properties should they have the evidence to support their view.”
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