The reaction of Drakenstein Municipality can obviously not be left unchallenged.
Bradley Brown glibly quotes Section 53(2) of the Rates Act ( 6 of 2004 ) to justify the “prescribed fee” to cover “administrative costs”. Although an objector does in fact apply to the Municipal Manager to supply the reasons for the decisions taken by the municipal valuer, the actual communication that follows is wholly between objector and the municipal valuer, as prescribed in Section 53 (3).
When appointing a municipal valuer (through a tender process), paid for by the ratepayer, an extended process kicks in for which the valuer is fully responsible for the total extent of the contract period.
Taking all this into consideration (a process already fully paid for through the awarded tender) and then looking at Section 53 (3), which states that the “valuer must provide the reasons for the decisions to the applicant”, the question must obviously then be raised as to why the municipality will deem it acceptable or necessary to levy a “prescribed fee”, when in actual fact the valuer is the legally responsible person to provide, in writing to the objector, the reasons as required by the Act.
The questions which then comes to mind is the following:
• Is the “prescribed fee” collected by council, for a service they did not render, actually paid over to the ” service provider “, namely the valuer?
• If that is the case, the valuer is being paid for a service (double-dipping) that was actually already allowed for in the original tender requirements as accepted by the valuer.
• With whom does the “administrative costs” then lie? A council that does not provide any service, or the valuer that has already been paid through the tender process? A conundrum then arises; must or should Council raise a “prescribed fee” by “simply hiding behind an obscure section of the law”, or take the moral high ground and “do the right thing” and waive the silly fee imposed on an already overburdened ratepayer?
Can Council please explain in whose pocket the “fee” ended up?
Johan Rademeyer, WELLINGTON
Bradley Brown responds: Local government performs its function within a legal framework – in this instance, the Municipal Property Rates Act, 2004 (Act No. 6 of 2004), which instructs all municipalities to charge a prescribed fee to recover administrative costs associated with providing written reasons for decisions taken by the municipal valuer on request by an objector.
This is not “a masterclass in bureaucratic jargon”, nor did I “glibly quote” legislation in my previous response. This is the law, and Drakenstein. Municipality complies with the law as we always do.
That said, as a municipality we have done our research and established that some municipalities in the Western Cape are either not imposing this fee at all or have adopted more flexible approaches, especially in cases where the request for reasons is made in good faith and does not place a disproportionate administrative burden on the municipality.
It is in the same spirit that Drakenstein Municipality approached the national Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) to cap property rates increases for its residential property owners on 12,5% in the new financial year. We are willing to review the fee prescribed by Section 53(2) of the Municipal Property Rates Act and take this up with CoGTA.
We do, however, need to clear up the false perception that has been created, that all property owners who wish to object against property valuations in Drakenstein or appeal against the municipal valuer’s outcome of an objection should pay this prescribed fee. This is not true.
Objectors only have to pay this fee if they wish to obtain the municipal valuer’s reasons in writing for upholding or not upholding their objection.
Please also note that the municipality is not making any noteworthy income out of these fees. What is more, during the current round of objections no-one, to date, has paid this fee.
In the interest of our community we are willing to review the current application of the prescribed fee within the Drakenstein municipal area.
