Has the municipality overvalued your property?

The draft property valuation roll for the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality is now available for all ratepayers to study. This implies that metro property owners have until the end of March 2023 to inspect and object to the municipality’s current assessment of their property.

The roll paves the stage for prospective rate and tax hikes for over-valued properties that fail to object and finally correct the assessment. This comes as South Africans are already battling to keep afloat in the face of a bleak economic climate, rising gasoline, food, and living costs, and load-shedding. Property owners may now have to absorb and add to their to-do list the unexpected increase in rates and taxes.

This is why property owners are recommended to examine the current municipal valuations posted by the municipality to confirm that the municipal valuations are valid. Owners may file an objection if they believe their property has been overpriced or wrongly classified.

All properties in South African municipalities have both municipal and market value. Each property is appraised at market value, which is the amount the property would have realised if sold in the open market by a willing seller to a willing buyer on the day of valuation. These quantities are required by law to be the same; nonetheless, in certain municipalities, the amounts differ.

Property owners in the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality can raise complaints to the municipality in person if the municipal valuation differs significantly from the market value, according to Section 49(1)(a)(ii) of the Local Government Property Rates Act, 2004.

Every few years, the General Valuation Roll, which is a registry of properties in a municipality’s jurisdiction, is released. The municipality’s valuation establishes the rates and taxes that a property owner must pay over the next several years under the municipality’s control.

Property owners who neglect to object to valuation discrepancies in time will be liable to pay the rates and taxes that may be inflated due to an incorrect municipal property valuation.

There should be no disparity between your municipal property valuation and the actual worth of your property.

Failure to object to discrepancies between these two values may not only affect your rates and taxes, but can also affect future sales values.

It is your responsibility, not the municipality’s, to detect and object to any disparities, so make careful you determine both figures and check that no difficulties are present.