Sonneglans retirement community fights billing woes

Residents of Sonneglans Park Retirement Village are caught between a rock and hard place in fighting billing issues as their property has been zoned incorrectly.

Concerned resident Piet Botha said the issue was first noticed last year when the City’s new billing cycle took place.

He added, “Many elderly people are getting charged commercial rates on their billing. They do not realise that this issue exists and they are being overcharged. The extra charges are almost R1 000 more than what their bills used to be. This is taking pure advantage of the elderly and vulnerable, and I find it quite disturbing.

“For a lot of retired people, this is their last investment. We are not being treated well.”

Botha speculated that this confusion may have happened when the retirement complex was built in the 70s, which then was categorised as a residential property but zoned as commercial with individual units sold.

Up until this point, Botha is refusing to fill in the forms to convert the property into a residential zone as he and other residents will still be charged commercial rates in the interim, as well as other charges and fees that were not paid up to the point of the dispute.

“If we fill in the forms for the conversion, it means that we are admitting that this is a commercial property and not residential. This is something that we refuse to do as this confusion was no mistake on our part, and we will have to pay punitive rates,” Botha said.

According to Botha, he was also told when he collected the forms that the conversion cannot take place for the entire complex, but for individual properties only.

Ward 101 councillor Dalu Cele said the issue plaguing the retirement village was not a unique one and had been affecting properties across the city.

Cele said, “Zoning issues like these are a common annoyance for residents, and many have raised their concerns with the City. The retirement village and residents who have these issues need to get in contact with the City to fill out the relevant forms to get their properties zoned correctly. There is a process to this but it usually does not take too long to complete.

“Once systems are updated, billing will be looked at to be rectified.”

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