New July 2012 Municipal Property Revaluation - What do you do now?

YOUR NEW JULY 2012 MUNICIPAL PROPERTY                  
REVALUATION  - WHAT DO YOU DO NOW ?

PUBLISHED AS A PUBLIC SERVICE
BY THE CAMPS BAY  RATEPAYERS AND RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION (CBRRA)

The City Council of Cape Town has revalued all the  approximately 800 000 properties in the Cape Town Unicity for its latest 2012 Municipal General Valuation (GV2012)  which was carried out on 1 July 2012.

The City’s Valuation Office has recently posted its revised draft valuation of your property on the City’s website www.capetown.gov.za and you will already have received or will shortly be receiving in the post a notice from the City officially notifying you of its GV2012 revaluation of your property with a request that you either accept it or object to it before the end of April 2013.
 
What can / should you be doing now that you have received your new draft rates revaluation ?

It is very important, as a first step, that you read and fully understand the extensive notes accompanying your revaluation entitled “What you  need to know for the 2012 Valuation Roll”.

Since 21 February 2013 you have been able to access the City’s website details of your own property.

Alternatively, you can visit one of the City’s seventeen information centres as listed in your new revaluation covering letter.

While there you  can access the “Valuation Attribute Data” for your property: which will enable you to check that the residential details used for the valuation of your property are correct (i.e. that it is not listed as having a swimming pool if it does not have one, etc.) and you can access the localities of sales in your area which you can use for your objection should you elect to make one.

You  should now be establishing the factors / characteristics of your valuation should you feel that you have been overvalued.
 
Typical examples could be :

• A Council  registered water course (river!) and immense rocks on your property which eliminate your  ability to develop further on your property as owners around you can with  double / second dwellings, granny flats and the like. 
• The presence of a large overloaded Provincial registered trunk road (say a suburban main road) on your front boundary which has loud and dangerously speeding traffic including tourist and My-City buses on it and causes you difficulty in accessing / leaving your property by car for some  hours during rush hours. 
• The exposure to high winds and possible harm from fires in adjacent public open spaces. 
• A City electrical or drainage servitude running through your property. 
• A lack  or loss of views  compared with surrounding properties.
• Steeply sloping and /or irregularly shaped sites inhibiting the ability to develop them properly or  taking advantage of the available view.
• A south-facing house.
• Excessive distance from shops, schools, churches, beach etc. necessitating wheeled transport for  every journey.
• Alternatively, the immediate closeness of dense business areas with undue density of traffic and noise.
• No on-site garages

If you have not received your revaluation within a short time, or cannot find it on the City’s website, the onus is on you to visit the Council Valuation Department or an information centre to obtain it, because the end objection submission date will not necessarily be altered if you do not do this.

Should you decide to object to your new property revaluation in the document which you will obtain from the City, the  City will inform you as to where it has opened seventeen information centres which will assist  you in the compilation of your objection. At these information centres, you  will be able to ascertain the sales amounts and other  details of the  properties near your property to enable you to make an accurate comparison between such sold properties and your property.

Should you decide to approach a Valuer for  professional advice, first negotiate a fee quotation (probably on an hourly rate  or a percentage of the saving which is achieved basis) before investigating with him / her as to whether your  contention that the revaluation is too high is valid or not. If the Valuer  disagrees with you, you have at least been given a quick and reasonably  inexpensive professional opinion upon which you can decide whether to proceed  with your objection or not. Should you be advised to or should you decide to proceed, you should then appoint the Valuer to assist you with your objection to the City on the official objection form.
 
Estate Agents are also able to assist you with  your objection and can help you considerably by presenting you with their written assessment of what your property could have sold for in July  2012 and assist you with the sales prices of properties in your vicinity around that date.
 
The objection document is daunting, so  CBRRA therefore suggests that you do not submit an objection without a technically  correct motivation which is best prepared with professional assistance.
 
The  South African Institute of Valuers can assist you with names of Valuers (Address c/o J.J.Hofmeyr & Sons, 13 Piers Road, Wynberg, 7800. Telephone  021 7611803).  Alternatively look up the Yellow Pages.

Should you have submitted an objection to the City’s revaluation of your property,  and the City rejects your objection by not agreeing to your applied-for lower revaluation,  and you are not in agreement with the City’s response, you are then entitled to appeal to the Valuation Appeals Court (VAC) to state your case and attempt to lower your valuation. The VAC is an independent legal entity appointed by the Provincial Government and its decisions are final.

Should the City not agree initially with your objection, it is obliged to
supply you with its reasons for having done so before you decide to continue
your appeal to the VAC. Again should you decide to continue your appeal, you are well advised to do so with the professional assistance of a Registered
Valuer.

Your objection / double objection process may well last longer than July
2013, when your first adjusted 2012GV rates bill is due to be sent to you.
Should your objection / appeal process not have been finalised by this date,
continue to pay your rates based on the current rates bills you have been
receiving.  Do not stop your payments.  Once your revised revaluation has
been finalised between you and the City, it will adjust the new rates bills
to reflect this finally agreed revaluation and you will have to pay in any
shortfall plus interest at that time.
 
Remember that if you live in a sectional title apartment block, you will
again be billed separately  and directly for your unit and not in your levy
which used to reflect a  proportion of the overall building rates bill but no
longer does.
 
Should your valuation have increased, this does not necessarily mean that
your rates bill will escalate pro-rata to the valuation increase.
 
This is because the  variation in the total overall value of all properties in the Unicity since  July 2009 will probably mean that the Rate in the Rand may hardly be adjusted in this 2012 GV year and may even be reduced. The current recession may have had its effect on the new valuations, but this movement will differ from one suburb to another depending on the situations and market attractiveness of such suburbs which
is reflected in the valuation.

It could well happen again in this 2012GV that the new rates bills in July
2013  may result in lower rates bills in some areas and much higher rates
bills in others.

Remember that the increase in your revaluation reflects the increase over the three years since the 2009GV. Therefore, if your increase is, say, 15%, this means an average increase of 5% per annum since the 2009GV which, under the present state of the property industry is probably a fair reflection of your market value and, accordingly, it will not make sense to object to your 2012 GV.
 
For the next few years until the  next GV, probably in 2015, your  new
revaluation will remain constant (unless it is adjusted by a  supplementary
valuation in due course, which the City is entitled to do)) and your future
rates bill increases in ensuing years will be based only on the subsequent
annual increased Rate in the Rand applicable to all properties.
 
One way or the other, be aware of your rights and start  preparing to be
possibly paying more rates than your present rates bills from July 2013
onwards, the extent of which will only be revealed to you after the new Rate in the Rand is announced by the City when it  announces its 2013 overall budget.
 
Chris Willemse
Chairperson
CBRRA