General Valuation 2012 – All property owners please take note

The City of Cape Town’s 2012 General Valuation Roll (GV2012) was certified by the City Manager on 31 January 2013.In terms of legislation, a valuation roll remains valid for the financial year in which it is produced, and then for one or more subsequent financial years as the municipality may decide but, in total, not for more than four financial years.

It is best to conduct regular valuations, as long periods between valuations result in significant shifts in values. Due to the fact that there have been shifts in the property market since the GV2009 valuation roll, the City decided to have its next General Valuation Roll – GV2012 – after only three years.The date of valuation of the GV2012 is 1 July 2012. All the properties have been valued as at the same date of valuation in order to ensure fairness. The City’s valuations are based on actual property transactions (sales) that have taken place in the open market around the date of valuation. The Local Government: Municipal Property Rates Act, no 6 of 2004, states that all properties on the valuation roll must be valued at market value. Market value is defined as “the amount the property would have realised if sold on the date of valuation in the open market by a willing buyer to a willing seller”.

The valuations staff have been collecting and reviewing sales that took place since July 2009. The sales data is used in the Computer-assisted Mass Appraisal (CAMA) of properties. CAMA is a computer-aided analytical procedure used by trained professional valuers to value the large number of properties within Cape Town. This programme makes valuation cheaper and faster, but no less fair.

The municipal valuer is responsible for the production of the 2012 General Valuation Roll, which is a document containing the municipal valuations of all the 800 000 properties within the boundaries of the City of Cape Town. The municipal valuer is assisted by professional valuers, statistical analysts, data collectors and a host of diverse support staff. Once the CAMA system has produced the values they are reviewed by the valuers for correctness and adjusted if necessary.

Since it is impossible to undertake individual valuations of all 800 000 properties within the legislated timeframes, the City of Cape Town has moved from valuing properties individually to a mass appraisal approach which determines values through models that are informed by data. The City started modelling in 2000 and over the years has improved the models, moving from six models in GV2000, to 12 in GV2006, 24 in GV2009 and 30 in GV2012. These improvements in processes have resulted in better value assessments, and improvements in processes have been noted in the audits that have been carried out by the International Property Tax Institute.

The GV2012 Valuation Roll was finalised and certified on 31 January 2013, and the roll will be open for inspection and the lodging of objections between 21 February and 30 April 2013.Notices will be posted to owners in February 2013 to advise them of their GV2012 valuation, and of the procedure to lodge an objection if they disagree with the valuation. Property owners are advised to ensure that the City of Cape Town has their correct postal address as the notices will be posted to the addresses that are used to send out accounts. Corrections/updates to postal addresses should be sent together with a copy of the property owner’s ID to correspondence.crm@capetown.gov.za or accounts@capetown.gov.za or faxed to 086 576 1568.Property rates are calculated using the municipal valuation assigned to the property. Using the same date of valuation for all properties ensures that rates are levied on a fair and equitable basis.

The GV2012 values will be available on this website as from 21 February 2013. The cent in the rand will be available from the end of March 2013.

When will the property valuations be made public?
The GV2012 Valuation Roll will be published on 21 February 2013.

How will I know the valuation of my property?
You will be sent an official notice of your valuation by ordinary mail to the postal address as stored on the billing system. In addition, the valuation roll will be published on the City’s website at http://www.capetown.gov.za/en/propertyvaluations/Pages/default.aspx as from 21 February 2013.

Copies of the valuation roll will also be available at the objection venues.

When can I object?
The GV2012 roll will be open for inspection and the lodging of objections during 21 February and 30 April 2013.

How will I know about the objection period?
The GV2012 official notice sent to you will include details of how to object, and will include information on the objection period, how to obtain an objection form and valid addresses for returning the completed objection form. The objection period and venues will also be published in the local and community newspapers and the information will be available on the City’s website.