General Valuation, Supplementary Valuation, Review Process - What are the differences?

Owners of property within the Municipality of Cape Town (CCT) should be familiar with the latest General Valuation (GV) process, commonly known as GV2015. The GV2015 roll assigns the market value of all properties within the CCT, as at 1 August 2015, upon which annual rates are calculated. A GV has to be conducted by the Municipality every four years, as stipulated in Section 19 of the Municipal Property Rates Amendment Act (MPRAA) (Act 29 of 2014), although the City of Cape Town have conducted one every three years since 2006. They are aiming to further reduce the time between GVs in the near future.

Property owners who disagreed with their municipal value as reflected on the GV2015 roll would have (hopefully) objected within the stipulated period (before 30 April 2016) or would be paying rates on an inflated value until the next GV is conducted. For those owners who were aggrieved with the result of their objection, they could have entered an appeal within the stipulated period. Our valuation division lodged a number of objections and then appeals (where necessary) on behalf of property investors with many successful results.

Section 78 of the Municipal Property Rates Act (MPRA) (Act 6 of 2004) allows for Supplementary Valuations (SVs) to take place during the period between GVs. This gives both the City and property owners the opportunity to alter the municipal value following any changes such as (but not limited to) building on a vacant site, vast improvements/extensions, a change in use or a subdivision/consolidation of a property and major value errors. Property owners would receive a notice informing them that their property has been included in the latest SV and would have an opportunity to lodge an objection within a stipulated timeframe. Again, if the owner is not satisfied with the objection result, they are given the opportunity to lodge an appeal within a stipulated time frame.

The MPRAA introduced the Review Process in Section 26 (h), which amended Section 78 of the MPRA by requiring the Municipality to issue the property owner whose property has been included on an SV roll, with a notice informing them of this inclusion and giving owners the opportunity to lodge a request for a review. Such request has to be received by the Municipality within 30 days of them posting the notice.

The intention of introducing this review process was to allow Council to correct its property data before issuing a SV notice to the property owner.

Therefore, if you receive a notice informing you that your property has been included in the latest SV and you have the opportunity to lodge a request for a review, use this to inform the Municipality of any incorrectly recorded data on your property. The opportunity to lodge an objection to the value of your property on the SV roll, will follow by way of a notice giving you a time period within which to lodge an objection.

Please contact our experienced valuation division team should you want this process to be professionally handled.