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Only a fraction of Joburg ratepayers have objected to the market value of their properties set out in the new Valuation roll. The new rates come into effect on 1 July 2008.
Erika Naude, director of rates and taxes in the City and Werner Sarvari, director of valuation services
THE City received just over 21 000 formal objections to its new general valuation roll out of more than 780 000 registered properties on the roll.
The roll, which sets out the market value of all properties in the city, opened for inspection and lodging of objections on 27 February this year and closed on 27 May.
Werner Sarvari, director of valuation services in the City, said the main areas of objection were incorrect value of property, incorrect owner information, incorrect property category, omissions, wrong street addresses and spelling mistakes.
"Most of the objections were in relation to high values pegged on properties. Compared to Cape Town which received over 60 000 objections to its evaluations roll, I feel very good that only a fraction of the registered property owners in the city submitted objections."
Sarvari said the new valuation roll will come into effect on 1 July.
"We had an extensive campaign to ensure that every property owner had ample opportunity to inspect the roll. A physical copy of the roll was made available for inspection at 10 of the City's customer care centres across the city and an electronic copy was available for inspection on the City's website."
The City's website had 55 899 property searches, 23 992 visits to the venues to view values and 11 985 email queries, according to Sarvari.
Sarvari added that internal objections were received from the City. "This is normal practice. The roll is a legal document and changes, by whoever and for whatever reason, have to be done following the legislated process for objections. We lodged 5 000 objections against the roll mainly because of omissions, category changes and zero valuations," he said.
As expected, Sarvari said objections were received after the official closing date. These late objections, which amounted to 337, will be treated as queries in terms of the Municipal Property Rates Act and will be investigated.
"However, if changes to the roll are approved, they will have to be captured in a supplementary valuation roll," he said.
On the way forward, Sarvari said the City will now focus on working through the objections received and each objection will be considered "on merit".
"This will mainly be an internal process but external inspection may be necessary depending on the objection. Incomplete objections may, however, be rejected and it is possible that additional information may be called for."
Property owners objecting to the roll will be notified in writing of the outcome of the investigation into the objection, after which an appeal process will follow. A detailed, written explanation of the decision against an objection can be requested from the City's valuation services directorate at a cost of R350 per request.
"Objectors can then lodge an appeal against the decision of their objection, and it must be done within 30 days after their written notification of the outcome of their objection is posted. Ultimately, objectors who do not find satisfaction to their issues within these processes may challenge the decision in a court of law."
The processing of all objections will be completed by December 2008 and Sarvari hoped the entire process (including the appeals process) would be done by June 2009.
The Municipal Property Rates Act allows for supplementary valuation rolls to be done as frequently as possible, said Sarvari.
He said the current 2001 general valuations roll is still being updated with a final supplementary valuation roll under the old ordinance until September 2008.
"This is done to capture all property transactions done from 1 July 2007 until 30 June this year.
"Another supplementary valuation roll will be done to update the new roll (which was compiled on July 2007 and will come into effect on 1 July 2008) to cover all property transactions since 1 July 2007. This supplementary roll is due in September 2008," said Sarvari.
The introduction of the new roll will see some changes in the City's rates policy and tariffs. Rates will now be levied on the market value of the property as indicated in the new valuation role. Previously, the City rated property on the land value only.
Residential property owners wishing to know how much rates they have to pay per annum must subtract R150 000 from the municipal value of their property, then
multiply the figure by 0,004. The sum should then be divided by 12 to get the monthly rates payable.
Erika Naude, director of rates and taxes in the City admitted that sectional title properties, which are to be rated individually for the first time, posed a challenge to the City,.
"The main challenge has been to gather all the information relating to names of individual owners, postal addresses, right of way servitudes in favour of body corporates and so on. We are rating individual owners but in most cases these sectional title properties have bulk water and electricity meters," she said.
So far, only 40 000 sectional title addresses have been submitted out of 155 000 sectional title properties on the City's roll, said Naude. She appealed to sectional title property owners to fill in the form and submit it to Council for the purposes of rating and communication.
The new property rates policy allows for rebates for particular members of the community and certain properties. Property owners and properties who qualify include pensioners, sectional title property owners, heritage sites, primary and secondary schools and tertiary education institutions.
"But people must contact the City and get necessary application forms in order to activate the rebates, said Naude.
For further information on the City's rates policy, residents can write to Rates Policy Implementation, PO Box 1450, Johannesburg 2000, or they can contact 011 375 5555 or email
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