No need to get your pulse rate up yet over municipal valuations!
08-02-2006
With municipal officials doing the rounds in some municipalities knocking on doors to collect data for new municipal valuations, many are concerned that rates will soon be skyrocketing.
However, there is no need to get your pulse rate racing yet, says Llewellyn Louw, chief valuer at Rode & Associates.
He explains that in terms of the recently promulgated Municipal Property Rates Act, these valuations will form the basis for determining rates for the 2007/2008 municipal financial year, which only starts in July next year.
The Act determines that residential property-owners must be afforded the opportunity first of all to review the objective information currently being collected about the size of houses, the size of land, the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, garages and other improvements such as swimming pools and tennis courts.
For instance, Yolanda Crisp from the valuations department of the City of Cape Town says the data will be made available on a website and at the municipal offices and home-owners will be informed via notices in the local media when the data will be available for checking.
Louw says in terms of the Act, a fixed residential-property tax rate will be used and will be calculated on the market value of the property as at the date of valuation. Home-owners will be given written notice of the valuation of their specific property well before it comes into effect and will be invited to make objections on a form designed for that purpose, which must then be returned to the appropriate municipal offices.
Aspects people should consider in determining whether their properties have been overvalued, are, for instance, the condition of the house, the view or lack of a view, how busy the street is, when last a property has been sold in the area and at what price, and comparisons with neighbouring houses.
Home-owners with objections will be informed in writing of the date when a formal valuation board (headed by a person such as a retired magistrate and consisting of independent people with property backgrounds) will deal with their objections. The home-owner, or an official proxy-holder, will be entitled to appear in person before the board to state her case. According to Louw, a home-owner who has had a valuation done by a registered valuer in preparation for the board hearing will have a big advantage when appearing before the board.
