Property owners urged to oppose new bill

Johannesburg - Property owners and tenants are being called on to object to the draft municipal property rates bill despite assurances from government.

"There are just a few days left to lodge comments on the municipal property rates amendments bill - and both property investors and tenants should be objecting strenuously to at least one clause in the proposed legislation," said Hano Jacobs, chief executive of the Realty 1 International Property Group, on Tuesday.

Jacobs is worried that the proposed bill would result in people who own more than one residential property being forced to pay more expensive commercial rates on additional properties.

"What this will mean if the bill is passed, is that residential rental properties will in future be treated as commercial properties, and that the property rates levied on them will in most cases be more than three times what the owners are currently paying," he said.

However, the department of cooperative governance and traditional affairs said on Monday this was not the correct interpretation of the proposed amendment.

"But contrary to media reports on the draft bill, people who own more than one residential property will not have to pay commercial rates on their additional residential properties," said Deputy Minister Yunus Carrim in a statement.

"The intention is to ensure that guesthouses, bed-and-breakfast establishments, small hotels and the like pay commercial rates.

"If necessary, we will amend the draft to make this clearer before submitting the bill to parliament."

Carrim said the new legislation was supposed to make property rating "simpler, more transparent, more uniform and easier to implement".

The only policy shifts in the bill were that properties used for game hunting would be regarded as agricultural property and subject to rates; that there would be uniformity across municipalities in rating houses owned by recipients of old age pensions and disability grants; and that some public service infrastructure would be excluded from property rates because of their contribution to the country's developmental needs.

The bill was gazetted for comment on June 9 and the last day for public comment is Friday, July 22.

Comment can be faxed to 012-334-4811 or emailed to mpra@cogta.gov.za.