• The City of Johannesburg Municipality has made the draft property valuation roll for all ratepayers to review.
• Ratepayers are urged to look at the valuation of their property and lodge an objection if they believe the property has been overvalued.
• They will have until 31st March 2023 to do so.

If you are a ratepayer for the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) Metropolitan Municipality, you have likely received some form of confusing communication from the CoJ regarding valuation of your property.

More recently, the municipality has made the draft property valuation roll available for all ratepayers to review. The deadline for said review is 31st March, with property owners urged to assess the new valuations and check whether it is accurate. More specifically they have until the end of March in order to lodge an objection.

This is critical should you not wish to be saddled with potentially high higher rates and taxes, especially if the CoJ has failed to met the standards in terms of service delivery in your area.

“For over-valued properties that miss this opportunity to object and ultimately rectify the valuation, the roll is paving the way for possible rate and tax increases. This, while South Africans are already hard-pressed, struggling to stay afloat amidst the gloomy economic climate, high costs of fuel, food and living, and load-shedding. Property owners may now have to absorb and add to their list, the higher-than-expected hike in rates and taxes,” explains Lightstone, an SA property intelligence firm.

“Each property is valued at market value, which is the amount the property would have realised if sold on the date of valuation in the open market by a willing seller to a willing buyer. By law, these amounts should be the same, however, in some municipalities, the amounts differ,” it adds in a press release sent to Hypertext.

“In cases like these City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality property owners can, in accordance with Section 49(1)(a)(ii) of the Local Government Property Rates Act, 2004, make objections to the municipality in person if the municipal value differs substantially from the market value,” the firm continues.

Here is where Lightstone is hoping ratepayers make use of its services, with the firm offering property value reports than can be purchased from its platform.

While people choosing to purchase said information is up to them, Lightstone does raise a good point, and offers some solid advise for those living in the CoJ municipality. As such, it may be worthwhile assessing whether your property has been overvalued before the end of March deadline.

[Image – Photo by adriaan venner scheepers on Unsplash]