Some relief on the cards for Joburg homeowners

Disgruntled home owners slammed the city after they feared increases in rates and taxes - attributed to their properties - are over-valued.

Relief will be granted to thousands of property owners after Mayor Herman Mashaba announced that the City of Johannesburg will increase residential property rebates from R200 000 to R350 000.

If approved by Council in May, no tariffs will be paid on properties below or equal to the threshold.

There was a recent outcry when some residents noticed massive increases in their monthly rates. 

Many reported an increase of over 100%. 

"The General Evaluation Role which we've seen has resulted in a significant increase and would have also meant that households would have been paying more as a result of that," says city spokesperson Luyanda Mfeka.

The valuations of property process normally takes place every four years. The City of Johannesburg was however given an extension of one year in a bid to address the queries by owners.   

Mfeka says home owners will not be reimbursed for the incorrect valuation of their properties.

"Unless the contention is basically that the property valuation process that was done previously over-valued the property, and therefore that is the basis of that contention, but that should have been dealt with appropriately during the previous valuation process and not now."

He says if owners are paying more it should have been dealt with by the previous administration under the African National Congress (ANC) and mayor Parks Tau.

The ANC's Jolidee Matongo slammed the Democratic Alliance saying: "We find it very strange that the DA wants to blame everything on the ANC but we understand that is what they have to put out in the public that the ANC messed up the city."