Cape Town property owners query valuation discrepancies

Concerned property owners have questioned the accuracy of the City of Cape Town's general property valuation, with one claiming the council made 15 errors during an assessment of a row of 17 houses.

The Brooklyn resident said the 15 mistakes had nothing to do with the values of the properties. Of the 17 semi-detached houses, four did not have listed house numbers in the valuation roll and four house numbers were allocated in duplicate to two different plot numbers.

Three of the houses were incorrectly listed under the names of previous owners more than 10 years since they were transferred and one house number that was allocated does not exist.

She said the smaller house in the row, with no additions or alterations, was the most highly valued on the roll. It had increased in value by 73 percent, almost double the value given by insurers just a month before the general valuation was done in July 2009.

A Claremont property owner complained of similar errors. She said two identical properties, built at the same time by the same builder and located next to each other, have a valuation difference of R800 000. One two-storey house has been undervalued as a single-storey property, despite being visited by a valuator.

Another property was described as being built in 1981, but it was demolished six years ago and a larger dwelling erected. Although the new building contract was about R3 million, excluding the land value, the property was now valued at only R2.1m.

The property owner said the city's valuation system would only be fair of the correct valuation attribute data was used.

Of the 14 houses in her road, there were four inaccuracies.

City manager of valuations Emil Weichardt said the accuracy problems could be attributed to the "historical" problem of getting access to the properties.

He said often property owners were at work, or were reluctant to let valuers onto the property because of safety concerns.

He added that the city welcomed any feedback from property owners who picked up inaccuracies in the city's data. "This is why we have put the data on the website."

He said problems could creep in when the data was collected or captured. Any errors would be corrected if the city was satisfied that they were data inaccuracies.

However, many complaints have been about discrepancies between the information on the city's website and what was posted to property owners.

City director of valuations Chris Gavor has said: "I truly believe that we have done all we can, given the huge challenges, to ensure a fair, uniform and transparent general valuation.

"We have put in the hard slog, we have tested our systems and we are confident that the end result will be received with due regard for the fairness of the process."

The 60-day inspection and objection period started today and will end on April 30.

Objections can be lodged on the city's website at www.capetown.gov.za or at one of 18 inspection centres in the city.

Cape Times

Posted at 09:42AM Feb 23, 2010 by Editor in Residential  |  Comments[2]