The release of the latest Property Valuation Roll has created a great deal of anxiety and questions which were immediately addressed by many ratepayers to the respective ratepayer organizations throughout the Ndlambe Municipality region. We have the Ndlambe Ratepayers Forum (NRF) which is the umbrella organization for all the ratepayer associations, including PARRA. The NRF is headed by our Vice-Chair, Mr Dawie van Wyk, who has a wealth of experience in dealing with the previous valuation rolls. Dawie accordingly addressed correspondence on behalf of the NRF to the Municipal Manager on 13 February 2024. See a copy below:
Mr Klaas, the Director of Finance at Ndlambe LM responded with the following feedback on the same date:
“Good Morning Mr van Wyk,
On my capacity as an advisor to the MM and delegated responsibility on this matter, allow me to provide some input on the registered concern. I have noted the requested analysis and certain that Diane will do the exercise, however, I do not believe that our solution lies solely on the pending exercise furthermore the referenced data may be irrelevant on this GV, note ;
- The SV’s referred to were based on expired GV valuation date set by Council about 6 years,
- The Kenton Valuations which we engaged and Council provided relief on was the indication of existence of pockects of high valuations which when agreggated resulted in such spikes,
- The law of extrapolation does quite fit in determining the valuations as they are market related and time bound
- We all agree that valuations are based on the market movements and the date of those movements.
- Point 4, should be the basis of evaluating the current draft roll, this is acknowledged in your communication to the MM.
- You have raised a concern about the number of sales over the 2years which may impact a determination of an average price either way.
- My proposal is that we engage the valuer to provide sales in the various ares you have used in your comparative analysis and we be advised how those sales were applied/used to determine current values.
- point 7, is dealing with “factual data”, it cannot be disputed, the challenge could be its application or usage, that is where arguements could be raised.
Please, confirm acceptance of my proposal and your comfort with structuring the data as per point 7, above. Your timeous response on this will be highly appreciated to enable the valuer to prepare himself. It be noted that agreeing to the meeting does not disregard the provisions of the MPRA as it is the only way that will enable a “legal valuation roll” for levying of rates. We will still be expecting submission of of objections and appeals where necessary.
Regards”
We confirm that the issue of pensioners rebate was discussed and the application form was provided (please click here for the PENSIONER REBATE APPLICATION FORM (2)).
This is the Ndlambe Municipality’s pensioners rebate qualifying criteria:
There has been some back and forth regarding the information available on the current role in terms of the requirements of the POPI Act, however the withholding of certain information makes it incredibly difficult for homeowners to assess their value in relation to their neighbours.
Dawie has included the 2019 valuations vs the newly proposed valuations into one document, including addresses so that residents can easily compare their increases and to those of their neighbours. Click here to see this user friendly list – Port Alfred 2019 vs 2014 Valuation
We confirm that the NRF (and PARRA) will be meeting with Ndlambe Municipality’s Finance Department and Mark Lindsroom (who is the private valuation company who attended to the valuations). It must be noted that there is no real input from Ndlambe LM into valuation amounts, as it is done by an independent valuator.
We will provide further feedback once we have met with the respective parties.
