FOLLOWING my letter to the Highway Mail, I was contacted via the Highway Mail by a pensioner from Pinetown to assist her with her objection to her municipal rates.
She purchased her home way back in 1978. In 2012 the home was valued by the municipality at R600 000.
As from July 2017 the value is R780 000. Wakefields have carried out an independent market assessment of R820 000.
Thus on that information she has no grounds to complain about her valuation.
An increase of 30 per cent over four years could be argued to be correct. However in this case the municipality has increased the rate randage by 30.12 per cent over the four years but have not increased the state rebate, the municipal rebate nor the pensioner discount over the last four years. Her rates were thus R54.15 per month in 2012 and will become R362.25 in August.
That is a whopping 568 per cent increase.
On complaining to the Municipality the answer received is, “The Municipal Property Rates Act requires that properties are valued at market value for rating purposes.
The date of valuation for the ‘new’ valuation roll is 2 July 2016.
This means that we have looked at sales that took place on or around this date to establish values for other properties in the surrounding area. I cannot comment on the rate randages as this will be dealt with as part of the budgeting process which will be undertaken in May 2017.”
Fair enough. It seems we can only hope that the budget when done in May takes into account the incorrect Maths.
Currently the tariff book clearly shows 1.27 for 2017 and 2018 and even gives 1.32 for the next year. (Capetown has announced a reduction in rate randages because of the new valuations.) Letters to the mayor (mayorspa@durban.gov.za) will help.
I then thought I would have a look at the other side of the spectrum, the super rich.
I thought of perhaps one of the more expensive properties in Pinetown.
This property was purchased in 2012 for R4 950 000.
The municipal valuation for 2012 was R3 700 000. But, wait for it, in 2017 the municipal value drops to R 3 350 000.
How can this be possible?
The pensioners house in Pinetown increases in value by 30 per cent and rates go up by 500 per cent . But the fat cats house, purchased for almost R5m drops in value over four years by nine per cent and the rates only increases by 17 per cent.
How do the municipality say they check values of houses in the area? This exact house was purchased for R4 950 000 in 2012, current value must be R 6 435 000.
In this case their valuation means that the city coffers have been deprived out of R1000 every month in 2012 and next year will be deprived of R3000 per month.
Imagine how many new houses for the poor we could build or how many pensioners could be given a total discount if a mechanism could be introduced where people were forced to be honest when their values are obviously way under market value.
All rate payers know they have to pay for services but it just seems so unfair when R 7 000 000 house are valued at R1 700 000.
Please can all ratepayers write to the mayor and say any rate randage above the 0.0976 that applied in 2012 is unacceptable. (mayorspa@durban.gov.za)
Dave Bennett
Westville
