METROWATCH:
FAMILY AT WITS’ END OVER BILLING ERRORS
THE billing crisis continues, and it is destroying entire families emotionally and financially. Revenue department staff as well as the utility staff appear to be unable or unwilling to rectify even basic problems. The Bouloutis family tell their story.
NOT only is an incorrect City of Joburg bill destroying a family emotionally and financially, but it is also causing misery for tenants and their children in an entire block of flats which the family owns.
Christos Bouloutis and his family own a property with 12 flats and nine shops in Darrenwood, Randburg. Last year in April, out of the blue, they received a R1.1 million electricity bill which escalated to R1.9m within 10 months despite consistent payments.
The family immediately disputed the bill but the City of Joburg cut the electricity and water six times during the past year, sometimes for days on end.
“This has caused huge financial implications for the family because tenants stopped paying rent due to the constant cut-offs and the family is now owed R400 000 in arrears. Tenants are moving out in droves and the family are having problems finding new tenants because the property has developed a bad reputation,” said the family’s financial and legal adviser Harry Kalyvas, who specialises in rectifying problems with the council.
He said the council’s actions were tantamount to “gross negligence”.
An independent contractor working with Kalyvas found several problems: meter numbers on accounts do not correspond to the meter numbers; a sub-meter was being double-billed as consumption was running through the bulk meters which were also being charged for; the shops were being billed directly by the council, which then also billed the landlord for the same amount; the apartments were being billed on commercial rates of R56 000 a month instead of residential rates of R16 000 per month; charges were being calculated incorrectly; and the council seemed to be multiplying the consumption and the council was billing on incorrect meter readings.
Bouloutis installed smart meters, at his own cost, to monitor the consumption against the council’s claimed consumption, which proved to be substantially higher.
He claimed he had been threatened and assaulted by his angry tenants who pay their rent and then get disconnected for up to nine days at a time.
The desperate landlord has been to see the council at least 20 times to resolve the issue, but to no avail.
“If we owed this money, we would have paid it, but to get an amount like this out of the blue, and without any justification, is very serious, and has caused huge disruptions to the Bouloutis family and their tenants’ families,” said Kalyvas.
“The problem with these incorrect bills is not the city’s software but the fact that the meters are not audited to check if they correspond to the actual apartments and shops. Another problem is the meter readers, who either don’t bother to read them and thumb-suck estimates, or if they are read, the readings are not communicated to the council, or their numbers are illegible and are not correctly recorded,” he said.
Kalyvas has advised both the Bouloutis family and the council on how this matter should be resolved.
“It is gross negligence at its best. I have other clients whose accounts are in shambles. The city was forced to credit my one client R555 000 after it was also discovered he had been charged on the incorrect water meter for years. I know of yet others living in upmarket areas who don’t receive bills at all for services.
“The city and property owners are losing millions every month because of these account shambles,” he said.
Last week, the city agreed to send out a meter reader who confirmed all the identified errors. “But whether the account is going to be corrected remains to be seen and we will not stop till this matter is resolved,” Kalyvas said.
The city did not respond to a request for comment.