Who is going to pay for metro’s mistakes in Section 49 letters?
Property owners around Ekurhuleni received letters from the metro issued during February calling for the inspection of the general valuation roll and lodging of objections as per section 49 of the Municipal Property Rates Act of 2004.
The letters have correct property owner information but the property description box and its contents are incorrect.
This was a result of an error when merging data to mail these letters, according to metro spokesman Themba Gadebe.
The metro is now preparing new letters with the correct property description and values which will all be mailed before the end of March 2017.
Although this sounds like an excellent move, some residents have raised questions around the mistake and the costs of reprinting and re-posting, in particular, who’s going to pay for it?
They appreciate that the mistakes will be corrected but are concerned it will come at an enormous cost.
They want to know what led to the mistake in the first place and how many properties in total are affected.
Again, who is responsible for the mistakes and will there be any repercussions?
They wanted to know whether the person/s responsible for the mistake will be made to refund the metro for wasting taxpayers’ money.
The closing date for objections will be on Friday, May 5 at 3.30pm.
This will still afford residents enough time to lodge objections (where applicable) in line with the relevant legislation.
The metro will also place the certified valuation roll on its website from Thursday, March 16.
The Advertiser is awaiting comment from the metro regarding issues raised by the residents.
Incorrect property details on some letters sent to property owners
