Fight against new reviews to continue

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Residents had until June 18 to submit objections to the proposed new home price assessments.

In the last few days before the objection deadline, the new rating list caught the attention of the national media.

Despite the efforts of local residents and community activists, the objections were closed on June 18.

In the run-up to the last hours of the objection, no effort was spared to prevent the re-evaluations from being signed.

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District 20 councilor Jill Humphreys requested an urgent meeting between officials and residents and wrote a letter to the city manager.

“Our residents don’t ask for anything unreasonable. Our residents only want to pay what is fair and reasonable.

“If a house with a value of 4 million rand suddenly revalued to 15 million rand in the year of the lockdown, which leads to a fourfold increase in the tax, that is unreasonable,” said Humphreys.

“It is also blackmail when a needy family is faced with an increase in their monthly payments and tax payments of between R2,000 and R5,000.”

She said that fee payers objected by the thousands, even though most of them did not receive their Section 49 notification.

“Legal teams identified no fewer than nine legal irregularities in creating this evaluation list, all of which can be challenged in court.”

Humphreys described the evaluation role, which will be introduced from July 1, as an “insult.”

She asked the subway to extend the appeal deadline, pointing out that many residents were unaware of the existence of the assessment list, in part due to the city’s delay in delivering Section 49 notices.

The chairwoman of the Residents Action Group (RAG) Bedfordview, Marina Constas, also commented on the appeal procedure before the deadline on June 18.

“I am angry, frustrated and disappointed. I am deeply disappointed in our church, which clearly does not care about the people of Ekurhuleni, ”she said in a statement on June 15.

Constas added the city has no regard for the health and wellbeing of its residents, including the elderly, [who had] to visit the Council offices in person repeatedly during a pandemic.

“The Council has completely ignored the RAG’s request for a meeting on the tariff issue. They insist that the process of submitting objection forms in person to the council offices must be followed.

“They insist that people who have objected to this ill-considered procedure must go to the municipal offices again in person to present their reference numbers and have their account marked in order to avoid the excessive fees due to the incorrect evaluation list from 1 . July to be paid. “.

“The mayor of Ekurhuleni, Mzwandile Masina, the city director Imogen Mashazi and the prime minister of Gauteng, David Makhura, should hang their heads in shame.”

Constas assured the residents that the action of the RAG against the city of Ekurhuleni will not stop.

“We work with legal experts. We work with Outa. We are committed to the media. We expect the municipality to provide a detailed record of the tender process for the appointment of Opti and Black Dot Joint Venture, the outsourced company contracted by Ekurhuleni City (CoE) to conduct property valuation, ”she said.

In response to Humphreys and Constas, Ekurhuleni city spokesman Zweli Dlamini said the appeal period opened on February 24.

He added that the CoE extended the hours of operation for all customer care centers (CCCs) that received objections until 9:00 p.m.

Dlamini said that while there was an online objection link, those who used it had their objections back.

“To properly deal with these objections and avoid rejected objections that frustrate residents, physical objections are recommended as appeal forms had to be reviewed and accepted by objection assistants.”

Dlamini added that any residents who have objected to the value of properties on the general valuation list have two options for paying property prices.

“Firstly, residents can pay tariffs for the values ​​as they are on the rating list while they wait for the result of the appeal. Tariff payers who have chosen this option do not have to do anything.

“If the appeal is in favor of the property owner and this leads to an overpayment by the owner, the journals will be created and the credit will appear on the bank statement for that particular property,” he said.

The deadline for the additional payment is July 1st, the implementation date for the general assessment from 2021 to 2025.

Second, fee payers who are unwilling to pay according to the new rating while waiting for the outcome of the appeal should contact the CCC’s billing / fees department where the account is held and come to an agreement about the fees Paying for what they believe is the market value of their property, ”Dlamini said.

He added that account should be taken of the fact that the results might be favorable to the fee payer and if the fee payer has paid too much they will be credited, but if this is not favorable the fee payer will have to pay the shortfall.

“Please note that CoE will also flag all objections so that services are not cut while property owners wait for the results of the objection in the event of payment defaults.”

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