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THE new property valuations will prove to be is a major problem for businesses, residents and the municipality. That is the clear impression from ward nine’s Councillor, Sharon Sabbagh, at a report-back meeting on December 1.
Most of the problems will arise from the fact that the whole project was outsourced to “professional valuers” in another province and they did the job remotely, using mainly Google maps. So mistakes are inevitable. There are always mistakes and unfair valuations in any revaluation.
One of the problems is that Google maps are made from satellite images so they provide good pictures of roofs but they can’t see through them or tell whether a large house is actually a single residence or a block of two or three flats.
And how does a satellite tell whether an outbuilding is a workshop, storeroom or a granny flat?
Valuations have to reflect the market value of a property as it was on July 1 this year. That’s nice in theory but Google doesn’t know about flood plains, dangerous roads, traffic noise, diesel fumes, the crime rate in the area or the stink of sewage from broken municipal pipes. Any of these problems could knock hundreds of thousands of rands off the market price of a house.
The legislation on valuations has a built-in mechanism to correct mistakes but it works only one way. It gives us the right to appeal against valuations, and when they are too high most of us will. But if you are lucky enough to get an unreasonably low valuation the chances are you will keep quiet and that makes the system unfair because it means someone else will have to help pay your fair share.
Of course you will have to do all this during the festive season when family commitments and tourism take precedence over municipal business.
We are dealing with a public participation process at a time when public participation could not be more difficult. It is practically impossible to hold a public meeting on an abstract subject like property valuation methods and how to fill in objection forms in December or the first half of January.
The process falls short of our reasonable requirements and some municipal rethinking is urgently necessary.