Light at the end of the tunnel for Pikitup members?

At the same time, it looks as though there might be light at the end of the tunnel for reluctant club members who want answers to the mysterious Pikitup bills they are receiving each month addressed to The Default Owner.

Hyde Park resident Caron Lapperman wrote to the Chronicle this week, stating, “I have read the numerous articles in the Sandton Chronicle regarding the ‘Default Owners Club’ and want to let you know that I also ‘belong’ to this club’. I have lived in my house since 1997 and have paid my refuse removal on my rates and taxes account since that date,” said Lapperman.

“All of a sudden, in September 2012, I started to get a bill posted to my home address, addressed to The Default Owner. I did query this in December 2012 and I was given a reference number by the council. As of today, this query is still ‘open’ on their system.”

Like other members, Lapperman wants to know how to resolve the billing dilemma.

Illovo resident Tim Sewell, who also receives regular Pikitup bills addressed to The Default Owner, said he speculated the problem was a computer processing type of fault where someone had pressed the wrong button and ‘done something like a copy and paste by mistake’.

“A pattern has emerged with most of the bills having been issued around August/September of last year.

With the number of people who have come forward, it seems unlikely to be a number of separate manual entries, but who knows?”

Pikitup’s managing director Amanda Nair said the refuge removal service had established the issue was not generated at a Pikitup level but at council level. She said she had advised her colleagues from Property Rates to provide answers.

Beverley Ann Cvetkovski, deputy director of financial management: rates and taxes for the City of Johannesburg, said the accounts of those concerned would be investigated by the rates and taxes department and Pikitup would then respond to the charges relating to domestic refuge.

She said concerned Pikitup customers should contact 0860 JOBURG with their complaints and log their calls, obtaining reference numbers for their queries. “Queries are sent to the relevant department,” she said, adding there was an escalation process that came into effect if the query was long outstanding.

The mystery as to what has caused the spate of Default Owner bills in the Sandton area remains unanswered. Cvetkovski said the query to the relevant parties concerned requesting an answer to the billing concerns.