City Processing Objections to Property Valuations

City processing objections to property valuations

The City plans to resolve the bulk of property valuation objections received for the 2009 Valuation before the end of 2010.

Some 35 000 valid objections were lodged during the objections process, which translates into approximately 4.5% of the total number of rateable properties in Cape Town. Of these 19 600 objections came from residential properties, 12 500 for sectional title units, 2 330 for commercial and 440 for agricultural. The remainder of the objections fall into other categories.

“National legislation provides for the lodging of objections against valuations where the property owner disagrees with the value as determined by the municipal valuer. We are confident that we will process most of these objections by the end of 2010,” said Christopher Gavor, Director: City Valuations.

Property owners who lodged objections at the objection venues during the two month window period that ended on 30 April 2010 were provided with written acknowledgements at the venue. Property owners who lodged valid objections via e-mail, fax or mail by 30 April 2010 would have received written acknowledgements by mail.

Property owners will still receive rates bills based on their new valuations, but must contact the City’s Call Centre on 086 010 3089 to arrange payment options during the time their objections are being processed.

“The objections process gave us the chance to review any errors or omissions. We received about half the number of objections during this period, compared to the previous general valuation exercise in 2006,” said Gavor.

Qualified, experienced and registered professional valuers will investigate every objection, either by means of a physical visit to the property or by means of desk-top tools or both. The decision will then formally be communicated to property owners and ratepayers. Objectors who are still dissatisfied with the results can appeal the decision to a Valuation Appeal Board. The Valuation Appeal Board is an independent tribunal appointed by the MEC for Local Government in the Province. The appeal boards have already been constituted.

A project team will track the progress with the finalization of the objections on a monthly basis to ensure that the majority of the reviews are completed by the end of the year. Anyone with queries can contact the Call Centre on 086 010 3089.

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Issued by: Communication Department, City of Cape Town

Media enquiries: Christopher Gavor, Tel: 021 400 9900 or Cell: 082 899 3308