YOU'VE RECEIVED YOUR NEW MUNCIPAL VALUATION NOTICE FOR GV2022: WHAT NOW?

The much-anticipated City of Cape Town's new General Valuation (GV2022) has been finalised and you should have received your municipal valuation notice. In this article we help you understand the information contained in this notice and provide guidance on what to do if your property's municipal valuation is too high. 

YOUR VALUATION NOTICE EXPLAINED

The content of your property's GV2022 valuation notice is very important. This notice contains all pertinent information relating to your property, including registered owner, property extent, municipal value and rating category. You only have a small window in which to object to any of the following contained on the notice:

• The municipal valuation being too high (or low)
• Your property is recorded under the incorrect rating category
• The extent, legal description or physical address of the property is incorrect

Should any of the above be incorrect you need to download an objection form, complete it in full and submit it to the City's municipal valuation office before the deadline. If you are objecting to the property's municipal value, you are required to provide a motivation based on suitably comparable sales (in the case of residential properties) or based on the property's actual income and expenditure figures.

HOW MUCH CAN YOU SAVE?

The GV2022 is effective for the three years following 1 July 2023, or a maximum of four years.

See below to calculate your ANNUAL saving in rates:

• It is vital that your property's rating category is recorded correctly to avoid paying rates based on the non-residential (double residential) tariff rather than the residential tariff.

WHAT IS A REBATE?

The rebate referred to is applied to residential properties and can be viewed on the back of your rates account. It is deducted from your municipal value so that your rates figure is calculated on the reduced figure. The City has changed the rebate applied to residential properties effective 1 July 2023 by increasing it from R300 000 to R450 000. This is good news for residential property owners. Unfortunately, they have also excluded higher value residential properties to which the rebate applies, which was previously uncapped. Only properties with a municipal value of R5 000 000 or less can benefit from the residential rebate. This makes it even more important to object to your valuation if it is inflated.

Important facts:

• Your municipal valuation represents the City of Cape Town's opinion of your property's market value (IVSC 104 p18 30.1) as at 1 July 2022.
• The date for implementation of the new GV is 1 July 2023, i.e. your rates obligation will change from this date.
• The FINAL objection deadline date is 30 April 2023.

Should you have any queries regarding your property's municipal value or the GV process in general, please don't hesitate to contact us either via email (valuations@steer.co.za) or on 021 4261026.

We have a good library of information relating to the municipal valuation process so please click here for previous articles and consider signing up to our blog to stay updated.

For frequently asked questions relating to General and Supplementary Valuations, look at this helpful resource from the City of Cape Town.