Africa-Press – South-Africa. A Johannesburg councillor shared a list of pointers for confused residents on how to determine the new value of their properties.
There was a valuation increase on the General Valuation Roll of 2023 (GVR23) and a 2% property rate increase, a double-edged sword for residents to navigate.
The GVR23 is a document containing the information of all properties liable for rates within the boundaries of Johannesburg.
Residents had 80 days to object at the beginning of the year.
The City received 40 000 objections, around 6% of the 934 652 properties.
According to Finance MMC Dada Morero, the City will have finalised the objections by mid-September.
The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse is conducting a survey, which asks residents to reveal any issues with the valuation increases.
The Ward 117 councillor, Tim Truluck, is working with residents regarding the value of their properties.
“This is my third Valuation Roll since becoming a councillor in 2011, and I have never seen so many rejections by the valuer,” Truluck said in a newsletter this month.”
He added:
Residents can receive a “Written Reasons of the Municipal Valuer’s Decision”, which comes at a price.
On Monday, Truluck said he had received his “written reasons” outcome last week, after paying the R498 fee.
“Initially, it seems to contain little useful info. But, on a closer reading, and some digging into what they were saying, I gleaned the following information.
“They note that: ‘Kindly be advised that our valuation…is based on comparable sales method and these sales are in the vicinity of the subject property and are similar to the subject property’.”
The City quantifies improvements to a stand by allocating weights and scores for the property, which are then compared to similar properties.
This is called a “Weighted Gross Building Area (WGBA)”.
The weight for the main house is 100%, a granny flat and garage 70%, domestic quarters 30% and a carport 15%.
The area is calculated in square metres for the structures and multiplied by the weight for each to get the total.
Truluck gave his WGBA as an example:
Main Dwelling: 153m2 x 1 (100%) = 153
Car Port: 100m2 x 0.15 = 15
Granny Flat: 40m2 x 0.7 = 28
Total: 196
“The valuer then looked for sales of properties in Parkhurst [where Truluck lives] in the three years before 1 July 22 with a similar WGBA. There were 14 with a WGBA ranging from 153-200. They then calculated the average price of the 14 properties to get R3.14 million as my new valuation.”
According to the councillor, the issue with the valuation is that the resident does not know the data for the 14 properties they used – “these could be incorrect”.
He said it would be hard for a resident to argue for a reduction based on “things they cannot know about or see”, without professional help from a registered valuer.
Truluck shared seven tips which he got from a professional valuer:
The deputy director for the City’s rates policy department, Veli Hlophe, said the objection process had closed, but residents could lodge a Section 78 query, if they had issues.
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