Owners should own rates values

YOUR August 12 frontpage headline did not surprize me. The system is ripe for corruption and backhanders.

During the recent rates policy review I wrote a detailed letter to the relevant department, telling them exactly what was wrong with the current system.

I was fobbed of and told that my concerns involved the values and not the policy and that I should wait until the municipal values are up for discussion.

The only solution is to make owners responsible for their values being correct, or reasonably so.

As with provisional tax, taxpayers have to estimate their provisional tax and if they underestimate there are penalties.

Let owners ensure their properties are valued correctly. Let the policy be that if you come to sell in the future and your selling price is above the municipal value by the higher of R500 000 or 15% of municipal value, you must pay the arrear rates from the first valuation date. Some examples:

We cannot allow businesses to get away with under-paying rates to the tune of R50000 a month and at the same time insist that a person in a house worth R600000 must pay his full share at the correct value.

A commercial building recently sold for R35million. The municipal value was only R9500000. This owner has been under-paying rates to the tune of R50000 a month.

The current owner is still paying R50000 less than he should.

My investigation using activity sampling shows that 100% of homes that sold for more than R4million had municipal values of much less than the selling price – in some cases 75% less. This represents a loss of R3000 in rates every month.

There must be thousands of transitional commercial properties being used as commercial but paying residential rates. Why? Just one example: residential municipal value R2500000, paying R2000 a month rates. The same house sold for R3 500 000 for commercial purposes so should be paying

R5 000 a month. Another benefit for the rich.

The thousands of illegal residential-use buildings being used for commercial. An example is two adjacent “flats”, with both used for commercial purposes. The one is zoned commercial, valued at R1300000 and paying R2500 rates. The other is residential at R800000 the municipality at R3300000. Now in 2016 the municipality revalues this home at R3100000. How can this be?

I also understand that all in the management team received a substantial bonus because there were so few objections to the new values. I understand they achieved this by not pushing up commercial values too much and thus the people who complain (the rich) were on the whole happy.

The poor pensioners find that their rebate remains constant year after year, and many found their small rebate disappeared.

The poor black person who has scraped together his savings for years to buy a house for R600 000 finds that the municipal value is never less than the purchase price.

The system must be changed to make sure that ethekwini officials cannot in any way manipulate the system to benefit their paymasters.

The only way is to make property owners responsible.

DAVE BENNETT

Westville

Support for fuel hike movement

THE letter by Sanjay Singh, “Fuel Price: Be wary of our politicians’ motives”, (Sunday Tribune, August 12) cannot be left unchallenged.

Why is it that when brave people stand up for what they believe is right and are supported, you get the likes of Sanjay Singh, who come to put them down. Give credit where credit is due.

Mr Visvin Reddy had the courage to begin a campaign, which has gained national momentum, against the high fuel prices. Where was Singh all these years when fuel prices were going up? He had this information about fuel pricing but did nothing about it. These are letter-writing activists who think they can make a difference by doing that.

I am one of those who don’t support politicians because, in my opinion, they are all self serving. I supported Reddy’s call to action because he provided facts and evidence which made it clear that the government was fleecing the people through fuel price increases.

Reddy made it clear that the People Against Petrol and Parafin Price Increases (Papppi) was not aligned to any political party and was set up to mobilise people against the exhorbitant increases. It is worth noting that political parties started raising their objections only after Papppi was formed.

Reddy is doing a superb job and we are behind him 100%.

RR GOVENDER

Durban