Estate Valuers urges citizens to kick against wrong property tax

The new chairman of Estate Surveyors and Valuers Registration Board of Nigeria (ESVARBON), Mr Olayinka Sonaike has called on citizens to resist attempt by government to over value their building for the purpose of taxation.

Sonaike gave the charge in Lagos at a roundtable with the media.

He said that the institution is encouraging people to contest it, accusing government of playing on the ignorance of tax payers.

He said, “Some of us encouraged our clients to contest and the moment they saw that an estate surveyor and valuer intervened, they would opt for dialogue. To be honest with you, the assessment does not have any basis of valuation. They brought a system being used in Canada and domesticated it. But we told them it was not applicable here.”

Sonaike alleged that most of the government agents engaged in property valuation were not competent to do so.

Speaking on the challenge thrown at the body by the Minister of Power, Works and Housing on rent control, he said, rent is determined by demand and supply rule.

“If you increase the supply in the market, the prices will go down. But, if the demand outweighs the supply, unless you start doing rent control, you cannot regulate it,” he said.