A group of commercial property owners in Pietermaritzburg have won a significant legal victory with a court ruling setting aside the values placed on the property by the Msunduzi municipality and directing the Appeal Board to properly and fairly consider their appeals.

TimesLIVE reports that the latest valuations – on which rates are determined – nearly doubled in 2019, and their objections to the appeal authority effectively fell on deaf ears.

KZN High Court (Pietermaritzburg) Judge Sidwell Mngadi said the 20 applicant companies noted that the amounts referred to in the municipality’s 2019 valuation roll were ‘overstated, resulting in exorbitant rates’.

A schedule of the properties concerned showed that between the last valuation, done in 2014, the values had shot up.

One went from R3.5m to R9.2m. After objecting, it was reduced to R8.5m and after appeal to R6m.

However, in many instances, there was little change to the valuations after the appeal stage.

Mngadi said the applicants contended that the values were not supported by objective facts but were arrived at arbitrarily and the Appeal Board had refused to hear or consider their representations.

‘They say their representatives during the hearings of appeals were poorly treated by members of the municipality’s Valuation Appeal Board...they were not afforded a reasonable opportunity to make representations, members of the Board showed a hostile and condescending attitude towards them,’ he said.

The judge set aside the property values and directed the Board to properly determine the appeals within 60 days.

The municipality was ordered to pay the costs.

Full TimesLIVE report