{"id":199398,"date":"2017-09-18T16:03:02","date_gmt":"2017-09-18T14:03:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=199398"},"modified":"2017-09-18T16:03:02","modified_gmt":"2017-09-18T14:03:02","slug":"city-of-johannesburg-accused-of-changing-property-values-to-hike-water-and-power-rates-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/199398\/city-of-johannesburg-accused-of-changing-property-values-to-hike-water-and-power-rates-report\/","title":{"rendered":"City of Johannesburg accused of changing property values to hike water and power rates: report"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The City of Johannesburg is illegally changing its residents\u2019 property ratings from residential to business, thereby increasing their monthly rates, according to\u00a0municipal specialist attorney Chantelle Gladwin, who says she has seen a recent influx of cases in which clients have approached her with this complaint.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt has come to our attention that the city\u2019s valuations and rates departments have begun implementing an old policy on a mass basis,&#8221; she said, speaking to <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.iol.co.za\/news\/south-africa\/gauteng\/city-of-joburg-accused-of-illegally-changing-property-ratings-11258685\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Star<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is having an enormously detrimental impact on certain members of the public because they are being charged rates based on the business tariff when they should be charged rates on the residential tariff, and their attempts to rectify the problem are being met with bureaucracy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Under the current system, rates charges are based on the rating categorisation the municipal valuer puts on the property.<\/p>\n<p>According to Gladwin, the valuer must follow the Local Government: Municipal Property Rates Act, which is strict on any deviation from procedure.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAny interference by the rates department with the rates charges billed in respect of the rating category and value determined by the municipal valuer is unlawful.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Notwithstanding this, which has been explained to various officials many times over the years, the city\u2019s rates and\/or billing departments continue to interfere,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>Revenue department spokesperson, Kgamanyane Maphologela, denied the allegations, stating that the City applied new rates on 1 July.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s factually incorrect to say the city is using the old policy to charge property rates. The policy states all rateable property will be classified in a category and will be rated based on the category of the property from the valuation roll, which is based on the permitted use of the property.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At no stage would the city unilaterally change the customer\u2019s tariff without consent, said Maphologela .<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The rates policy was a public document available to everyone. Customers who were victims of harassment should immediately report those incidents,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/media\/197774\/cape-town-tightens-water-restrictions-ahead-of-harsh-summer-months\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Cape Town tightens water restrictions ahead of \u2018harsh\u2019 summer months<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The City of Johannesburg has been accused of illegally changing its residents\u2019 property ratings from residential to business, thereby increasing their monthly rates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":103729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[2016,26],"class_list":["post-199398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-city-of-johannesburg","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199398"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199398\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":199410,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199398\/revisions\/199410"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}