HOMEOWNERS can rejoice after a ruling was passed in the Pretoria High Court yesterday stating that new property owners were no longer responsible for the historic debt built up by the previous occupants.
The Local Government Municipal Systems Act states, in section 118 (3), that: An amount due for municipal service fees, surcharges on fees, property rates and other municipal taxes, levies and duties is a charge upon the property in connection with which the amount is owing and enjoys preference over any mortgage bond registered against the property. Judge Dawie Fourie declared this constitutionally invalid during the case yesterday.
Ward 10 councillor, Rick Crouch, said, “I have been telling the municipality for years now that by making the new owner responsible for the old owner’s debt was wrong and that it should be revisited. They said it is legal. That was the whole reason that renters can no longer get a utility bill in their own name because of the municipality’s ‘the debt stays with the property’ policy.
“When you think about it, the new owner has no ownership of that debt, but the municipality has ample resources to recover the debt, they could even flag that person’s ID number so when they apply for utilities anywhere else in the city, they would be required to pay the old debt first. I could never grasp the logic of making someone responsible for someone else’s debt, and that someone else is a person they have never met. I am very glad that the court has seen it this way.”
