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More than 30 municipalities across the country have recently revised the valuations of properties within their jurisdictions, and if property owners ignore this it could prove costly for them.
This warning comes from Ben Espach, director of valuations at Rates Watch, a company that assists individuals and businesses with objections and appeals against valuations that are too high.
Municipalities that have issued new valuation rolls include:
- Cape Town
- eThekwini (Durban)
- Mangaung (Bloemfontein)
- Emalahleni (Witbank)
- Emfuleni (Vanderbijlpark)
- Saldanha Bay
- Metsimaholo (Sasolburg), and
- Kannaland (Ladysmith).
In most cases, the deadline for lodging objections falls in April.
Espach emphasises that the new valuations form the basis for calculating property rates for the next few years, and once the deadline has passed, it becomes difficult to have an inflated valuation revised.
In Cape Town, other charges such as sanitation for households have also been determined based on property value since June last year, and the metro council wants to extend this to commercial properties.
AfriForum and the South African Property Owners Association (Sapoa) challenged this practice in court last year, but judgment has not yet been delivered. The metro continues with the practice in the meantime.
Checking valuations
Municipalities are legally required to notify every owner individually of the new valuation, but Espach says it is better to timeously check the council’s website to access the valuation roll. It should also be available at central locations such as public libraries.
When reviewing a valuation, it is important to note the valuation date. By law, the valuation must reflect the market value of the property on that specific date. If the date, for example, is 1 July 2025, market movements since then should not affect the valuation.
Espach cautions, however, that a large increase in property value alone is not a valid basis for objection; it may simply be the result of an undervaluation in the previous round that is now being corrected.
It is also vital to check the category in which the property has been classified.
If an ordinary house is classified as a commercial property, for example, it could completely affect the calculation of the bill the owner eventually has to pay, because the tariff is linked to the category.
Property rates on residential property are significantly lower than on commercial property, and a lower tariff applies to agricultural land than to residential.
The categorisation is usually determined by the use of the property, not the zoning.
A smallholding zoned for agriculture but used to operate a steel business, for example, would correctly fall under the commercial category rather than agriculture, and the property rates would be considerably higher.
Objections and appeals
Objections against either the valuation or the category must be submitted on prescribed forms, which differ depending on the type of property.
The municipal valuer considers the objection.
By law, owners are given 30 days to lodge an objection, though some municipalities allow a longer period. If the deadline passes without an objection, the owner is generally bound by the new valuation until the next valuation roll, which may take several years.
Property rates are then calculated on the new valuation and must be paid accordingly.
If an objection succeeds, the municipality must adjust the account retrospectively.
If an objection fails, the owner can request the reasons for the decision and lodge an appeal. Appeals are heard by an independent panel appointed by the provincial government and chaired by a legal expert. At least one member of the appeal panel must be a qualified valuer.
The owner or their representative appears in person before the appeal board and must support the objection with evidence.
If the owner is unsuccessful there as well, the only remaining option is to take the appeal board’s decision on review to the high court.
Rates policies and tariffs
Espach says that to determine the amount that will appear on the owner’s account when the valuation roll takes effect, one must also consider the relevant municipality’s property rates policy and tariff levels.
These policies and tariffs are adjusted annually as part of the municipal budget process, and members of the public are given an opportunity to comment on them during the public participation process before they take effect on 1 July each year, together with the new tariffs in the budget.
The policy determines the requirements for a property to qualify for a specific category and also the extent of rebates for certain groups of owners and certain categories of property.
For example, the law stipulates that the first R15 000 of a residential property’s valuation must be excluded from property rates. Municipalities may, however, increase this threshold or grant additional rebates to pensioners or owners of low-value properties to assist poorer households, says Espach.
He also points out that when property values rise sharply in a new valuation roll, municipalities often reduce the tariff to avoid price shocks.
Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis, for example, has promised that the property rate in the metro’s new budget will decrease by about 10% because the strong demand for property in the Mother City pushed up property values sharply in the recent valuation roll.
This should keep the bill roughly at the same level for those whose valuations also increased by about 10%, but where the increase is larger, owners will have to dig deeper into their pockets, says Espach.
Check here to see whether your municipality has a new valuation roll open for objections.
Please read the article written by Antoinette Slabbert on the Money Web website here.