POLOKWANE – More than a quarter of the city’s properties originally listed on the city’s draft property valuation roll, are listed on the new supplementary valuation roll, which is now available on the municipality’s website.
This was drawn up and published even before the new draft valuation roll was implemented on July 1, an “unheard of” occurrance, according to seasoned valuer, Francois Goosen from Theo Goosen Estate Agents: Auctioneers, Professional Valuers and Property Administrators/Managers.
The new supplementary valuation roll was compiled as a result of properties having been valued too low, which would have resulted in a big loss of revenue for the municipality. Municipal spokesperson, Malesela Maubane, said some properties were also omitted from the valuation roll. “This was corrected on the supplementary roll,” he said.
According to municipal communications manager, Tidimalo Chuene, some 16 264 properties valued at over R14 billion and 114 sectional titles valued at just over R80 million, were listed on the supplementary roll. Originally, the new draft valuation roll listed around 60 000 properties.
The new supplementary valuation roll is open for inspection and objections until August 1.
Goosen said it seemed as if the valuers did not do their preliminary market research or deeds research. “This is clear from the values of certain residential areas, where properties were valued lower than they were sold for. I did my own spot check, and found that some properties were valued the same as their land values without any improvements,” he said.
He said the announcement of the publication of the new supplementary roll even before the draft valuation roll was implemented was “very suspicious”, but even with the new supplementary roll, the original draft valuation roll still left much to be desired.
Goosen said in the past, a valuer would receive around R300 for each re-evaluation or objection to be placed on the supplementary roll.
However, Chuene said the valuer had included the cost of objections in the tender quotation and would not charge extra for it. The tender was awarded last year to E-Valuations for just over R8,2 million. Other unsuccessful tenders quoted between R5 million and R7,5 million.
Several property owners found their properties listed on both the original draft valuation roll and the supplementary roll.
In order to lodge an objection, the prescribed forms can be obtained at the rates hall at the Polokwane civic centre or at the Seshego, Mankweng and Sebayeng municipal offices. Notices informing property owners have been sent out already by the municipality, although at least one property owner claims not to have received any notification at all.
