How do Section 78(5) Re-Valuations Work?

Before section 78 of the Local Government:  Municipal Property Rates Act (“MPRA”) was amended (on 1 July 2015), if a municipality wanted to re-value or re-categorise a property for rating purposes at any time other than on a general valuation roll (which only happens once every 4 to 5 years) it was legally obliged to
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How do Property Valuation Rolls work?

Every property is supposed to have a municipal valuation.  You should see a value, represented in Rands, somewhere on your municipal statement.  This is the property valuation that the municipality has ascribed to your property.  If you do not receive statements, you will have to phone the municipality and quote your account number and name,
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Muncipalities and Internal Remedies

This article discusses what type of “internal remedies” might apply in relation to a consumer’s dispute with the municipality about municipal debt, and how and when these internal remedies need to be exercised before approaching a court for assistance in resolving the dispute.   What are Internal Remedies? In most municipal jurisdictions, the municipality has
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Is it Illegal for a Municipality to Disconnect Water?

The South African Constitution guarantees a right of access to water (but not a right to water itself). What this means is that the South African Government (through its municipalities) is obliged to provide access of water to everyone in South Africa, where it has the financial and infrastructural capacity to do so. The Constitutional
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Expropriation Without Compensation?

This article explains what expropriation is in terms of South African Law, with reference to the current political environment and a focus on the present dispensation’s renewed vigour to speed up and enhance land redistribution and amend the Constitution to permit expropriation without compensation.   What is Land Reform? Broadly speaking, land reform is the
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The debate over Expropriation without Compensation

By Chantelle Gladwin-Wood, Partner and Tenielle Combrinck, Associate   Introduction This article explains what expropriation is in terms of South African Law, with reference to the current political environment and a focus on the present dispensation’s renewed vigor to speed up and enhance land redistribution and amend the Constitution to permit expropriation without compensation.  
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Does a general valuation roll ever close?

This article examines the legal question of whether a general valuation roll ever ‘closes’, such that no further objections can be lodged to the information contained on it. Why do we care? Sometimes property owners (or other interested parties) only discover that a property has been incorrectly over or undervalued, or categorised, for the purposes
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COJ’s Draft Problem Property Bylaws

Introduction The City of Johannesburg (“City”) has recently published a draft “By-law on Problem Properties” document (“bylaws”). Problem Properties are defined to include any part of a building or structure located in the City, and which fit the criteria set out in clause 7(1) of the bylaws. Section 7(1) is a long list, which includes
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COJ’s By-Law on Problem Properties

Introduction The City of Johannesburg (“City”) recently promulgated its “By-law on Problem Properties” (“Bylaws”). We wrote a previous article commenting on the difficulties that the Draft By-law on Problem Properties pose. This article looks at problems caused by the promulgated (final) version, which is now legally in force. For convenience, some of the content herein
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Free Basic Electricity: Do you have a right to it?

Introduction Electricity has become an integral part of daily life and it cannot be disputed that it has made daily living a little more efficient. Considering the current energy crisis and frequent power cuts in the form of “loadshedding”, is there a duty on government to provide free basic electricity to the people of South
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