Have you objected to your new Joburg property value? Well don't expect a resolution any time soon

If you’ve objected to your new property valuation in Johannesburg‚ don’t expect a resolution any time soon – in fact‚ don’t expect to hear anything this year.

The City of Jo’burg said this week that‚ due to the number of objections to the new property valuation roll and the complexities of each case‚ it has set itself a target of early 2019 to finalise property valuation objections‚ said Stan Maphologela‚ a city spokesperson.

The 2018 General Valuation Roll was met with contestation from property owners‚ who complained that their fixed assets had been over-valued.

The city unveiled the roll over a period of 45 days‚ starting on February 20. During this period‚ all property owners and interested property role players were invited to view‚ inspect and object to property details as contained in the valuation roll.

In total‚ 50‚595 objections were lodged.

“A total of 27‚027 objections were received at various stations and 23‚568 objections were received via the online system. All manual objections received were scanned and uploaded‚ together will all the other objections‚ onto the valuation system‚” said Maphologela.

These objections are currently being considered by the Municipal Valuer.

“We have started reviewing objections per area‚ starting with townships and sectional title schemes‚ where the highest number of objections were received. All the notices will be sent to the owners and objectors‚ even if the objector is not the owner‚” said Maphologela.

Johannesburg property owners who objected to their property valuations will continue to pay their old rates until the objection process is finalised.

The City has apologised for the inconvenience caused by the amount of time needed to review each objection.

Meanwhile‚ a top investments company has complained that growing delays at municipalities around SA to approve building plan and to obtain rate clearance certificates were leaving property buyers and sellers in limbo.

“These delays are slowing down the sales and transfers of properties and impacting loan settlement times. The knock-on effect is that the whole deal cycle is moving slower than it should‚ which is bad for the economy in general and the property development market in particular. It’s time for decisive action to be taken‚” said Gary Palmer‚ CEO of Paragon Lending Solutions.

Palmer said it was time the property and financial cluster take a joint stand to lobby for intervention.

“Whatever the reasons for these delays‚ whether it is a lack of appropriate resources or internal system inefficiencies‚ municipal non-delivery is stalling deals. In a time when our economy desperately needs money to be flowing‚ delayed property transactions for both private and commercial property is negatively impacting a number of sectors.

"Hunting for foreign direct investors is an important focus for government‚ but freeing up the wheels of the domestic economy could have more impact in the longer-term‚” Palmer said.