Property Rates Shocker

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) is running a public survey to see how property owners in the City of Johannesburg have been affected by the property valuation increase on top of the 2% property rates increase. “In our efforts to determine the extent of the impact the July 2023 property rates increase has on property owners, we have launched a survey to see to how many objections have been resolved,” says Julius Kleynhans, OUTA’s Executive Manager for Social Innovation.

OUTA believes the City may have inaccurately assessed property values and disregarded objections. To encourage fairness, OUTA encourages residents to participate in our survey whether the property owner has objected to the new valuation or not.

OUTA understands that some property owners only received their property valuation notices at the end of May 2023, after the objection deadline date of the General Valuation Roll 2023 (GVR2023). Because of the delayed notice, these residents weren’t afforded an opportunity to object within the GVR2023 public participation process.

OUTA recently wrote to the City, asking it to delay the increases on those properties where the valuation is disputed, until the objection process has been finalised, as this would be reasonable and fair. To date, the City has not responded to this letter. “According to the City’s media response, around 40 000 property owners have objected to the valuation roll. We believe that these residents’ objections should be concluded before accurate new rates can be charged to their bills,” says Kleynhans.

In its letter, OUTA raised its concern over the turnaround time by the City to address objections before the new rates are applied as well as the credibility of the method used to determine the rates of 934 652 properties within the City.

OUTA will collate the information from the survey responses to better understand the impact of the valuations and rates on residents. This will help OUTA determine its next steps with regards to ensuring that this process is transparent and fair.

Various community organisations have engaged with OUTA over recent months, asking OUTA to assist with service delivery and infrastructure problems in the City of Johannesburg. OUTA is working on plans to making it easier for Johannesburg community organsations to actively participate in the business of their metro.