Dispute over valuation roll

THE Kouga Municipality insists it is not intimidated or even nervous following a complaint laid with the public protector accusing the municipality’s new general valuation roll of being incorrect, flawed and containing haphazard valuations.

The complaint was compiled by the municipality’s former valuation company, Kouga Consortium of Valuers, which tendered to compile the valuations roll but did not get the contract, losing out to DDP Valuers.

Kouga Consortium of Valuers head John Boshoff then filed a complaint with the public protector dated April 8. The municipality, however, has not received any confirmation or cor- respondence from the public protector in this regard, according to Kouga Municipality spokeswoman Laura-Leigh Randall.

“The drop in valuations is a result of the drop in the property market since the last valuation roll was compiled,” Randall said.

The complaint states the general public is directly affected by haphazard valuations that are being submitted by certain valuers in compiling valuation rolls for the municipality.

As a result the Kouga Consortium of Valuers conducted research analysis of the accuracy of the valuation roll. The analysis revealed the valuation of property should not vary by more than 10%.

In Jeffreys Bay, which has the largest number of properties in the area, 99.65% had values that varied more than 10% from the purchase price which was very concerning for Jeffreys Bay resident Armand Bezuidenhout.

“If what you are telling me is true then my life’s work has been for nothing.

“My wife and I owe nothing on this house because we have worked hard to pay it off. Now if I sell I won’t get close to its value – that’s ridiculous,” Bezuidenhout said.

A total of 35 464 properties were valued in the Kouga municipal area and about 1 200 objections were raised.

Discrepancies were also found in the valuation of farms, with some of the 145 farms on which valuations were done, showing variance of more than 70% from the purchase value.