How often does the City of Cape Town produce a General Valuation Roll (GV Roll)?
In terms of the Local Government: Municipal Property Rates Act, no 6 of 2004 (The Act), the City must produce a GV Roll at least once every four years.

What is a General Valuation Roll (GV Roll)?
A GV Roll is a document containing the municipal valuations of all the 780 000 properties within the boundaries of the City of Cape Town. All the properties are valued at market value as at the date of valuation, 1 July 2009, in order to ensure fairness.

What is a supplementary valuation roll?
The current valuation roll for the City must be updated at least once a year. This update can only be done via a supplementary valuation roll. Only a subset of the properties in the municipality is valued in a supplementary valuation roll.

How are properties selected to be valued in a supplementary valuation roll?
The subset of properties is selected in terms of section 78 of the Local Government: Municipal Property Rates Act (Act 6 of 2004), and would include:

• properties that were incorrectly omitted from the valuation roll
  
• properties that have been included into the municipality after the last general valuation
  
• properties that have been subdivided or consolidated after the last general valuation
  
• properties that have undergone a substantial increase or decrease in market value since the last general valuation
  
• properties that were substantially incorrectly valued in the last general valuation
  
• properties that must be revalued for any other exceptional reason
  
• properties where the category has changed
  
  

How do I know that my property was valued in the Fourth Supplementary Valuation Roll (SV04 Roll)
Owners of properties appearing on the SV04 Roll will receive notices advising them of their SV04 valuation and of the procedure to object should they be in disagreement with the valuation.

Alternately, searching for your property on our GV2009 Roll on this website will inform you as to whether your property was one of those valued in the SV04 Roll.

Who produces the values assigned to the properties on the GV and Supplementary Valuation Rolls?
The municipal valuer is responsible for the production of the roll and he or she is assisted by professional valuers, statistical analysts, data collectors and a host of diverse support staff.

Why does my property need to be valued?
Property Rates are calculated using the municipal valuation assigned to the property. All properties on the GV Roll are valued at market value as at the date of valuation, thus ensuring that rates are levied on a fair and equitable basis. The date of valuation for the 2009 GV Roll is 1 July 2009.

What is the CAMA system?
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.

Why was my property not inspected?
Site inspections of properties are not compulsory in terms of the legislation. Valuations can be performed using comparative and analytical tools, aerial photography and CAMA techniques.
Properties are earmarked for a physical inspection only when the information available on the valuations database for the property is doubtful or where changes have taken place.

Where can I view my valuation?
At www.capetown.gov.za/propertyvaluations or at any of the City’s public inspection venues.

What if I disagree with the municipal valuation for my property? 

Property owners who are in disagreement with their valuations on the SV04 valuation roll may lodge an objection with the municipal valuer during the prescribed period on the prescribed objection form.

The public inspection and objection period for the SV04 commenced on 21 October 2011 and ends on 30 November 2011.

Objections must be in relation to a specific property, and cannot be lodged against the valuation roll as a whole.

The public inspection and objection period for: 

• the GV2009 ended on 30 April 2010, 
  
• for the SV01 ended on 31 August 2011 
  
• for the SV02 ended on 30 April 2011 
  
• for the SV03 ended on 30 August 2011
  
  

What constitutes an objection?
You may object to any information displayed on the valuation roll, as long as you are able to support your objection. It is up to you, the objector, to prove that the market value assessment is wrong. Comparing the valuation to neighbouring valuations does not imply that the valuation is wrong.

If your objection is that the property owner’s name or address is incorrect, this objection will be dealt with immediately.

Dissatisfaction with the amount of rates payable does not constitute an objection.

The City will not consider the following types of objections:

• Incomplete objection forms
  
• Multiple objections per objection form
  
• Objections completed in bad faith
  
• Frivolous objections to unrelated issues
  
• Objections not submitted on the official objection form
  
• Late objections
  
• Objections to properties not appearing on the third supplementary valuation roll
  

How do I lodge an objection? 
Objections must be lodged on the prescribed objection forms during the prescribed period. The period for submitting objections to the GV2009, SV01, SV02 and SV03 has closed. 

The SV04 objection period commenced on 21 October 2011 and ends on 30 November 2011. No late objections will be accepted. A separate objection form must be submitted per property.

Objection forms can be collected at any of the public inspection venues. Instructions about how to download the objection form can be found on our website.

The completed objections must be submitted as follows:

• Email – valuationsobjection@capetown.gov.za
  
• Fax – 086 588 6042
  
• Post to – The City of Cape Town, For Attention: The Objection Co-ordinator, P O Box 4522, Cape Town, 8000 (note that it is recommended that objections are posted via registered mail as the Valuation Office will not take responsibility for lost items. Please ensure that you are provided with an acknowledgement of receipt of your objection form)
  
• By hand - At one of our public inspection venues.

You may also request that an objection form be emailed to you during the objection period (21 October 2011 until 30 November 2011). These requests must be addressed to valuationsobjection@capetown.gov.za – Subject: GV2009 SV objection form required. Please include the valuation reference number of the property, or the erf number and the neighbourhood, in your e-mail in your e-mail.

What if the address on my valuation notice or on the roll is missing or incorrect? Does this mean that the incorrect property has been valued?
The address of the property is not used for the purposes of identifying properties for valuation purposes. The legal description (how the property is recorded in the Deeds Office), usually the erf number, is used to accurately determine the location of a property.

How do I know my objection has been recorded on the valuations database?
An official acknowledgement notice will be issued for every objection received. Only the official acknowledgement notice will be recognised by the valuation office, and should be used in future when querying an objection.

Objections lodged at one of the public inspection venues will be captured directly onto the valuations database and will be acknowledged immediately upon receipt. Please insist on being given your acknowledgement notice before leaving the public inspection venues.

Acknowledgement notices for objections lodged via fax and email will be sent via post.

What happens after I have lodged my objection?
The objection will be issued to a valuer / administrative officer depending on the type of objection that was submitted. The Municipal Valuer will assess the objection and provide a decision, which will be submitted to the Revenue Department in order for the account to be adjusted. It should be noted that the objection decision may result in a decrease or increase to the original valuation. You will be notified in writing of this decision.

What happens if I am not happy with the decision?
You are entitled to appeal against the objection decision of the Municipal Valuer if you believe you have good grounds on which to base such an appeal. The appeal will be heard by an independent appeal board. Information on how to lodge an appeal will be included in the objection decision notice to be posted.

When will I start paying rates calculated on the new valuation? 
Property owners received the bills reflecting the GV2009 valuation in July 2010, SV01 valuations were billed from September 2010, SV02 valuation were billed from May 2011 and the SV03 valuations were billed from September 2011.

Properties valued in the SV04 will be billed as from December 2011. 

Will the rates for my property be backdated?
The effective date for rates for properties valued in the GV2009 valuation roll is 1 July 2010. 

The effective dates for properties valued in the SV04 valuation roll is determined in terms of section 78(4) of the Local Government: Municipal Property Rates Act, no 6 of 2004. The effective date for SV04 properties cannot be backdated further than 1 July 2010.

How much will I pay with the new valuation?
The cent in the rand was announced in June 2011. A rates estimation can be obtained by accessing the rates calculator.

To use the rates estimation calculator, complete the following steps:

• Enter your street number and street name here
  
• Click 'search'
  
• Locate your property on the general and supplementary valuation roll
  
• Click on your property's 'market value as at 1 July 2009' and scroll to the lower part of the page that next appears (alternatively, click on your property's valuation reference, and then the 'rates estimation' button).
  
  

Do I still need to pay the new rates, if I do not agree with the value and my objection is still unresolved?
You need to pay rates on your previous valuation until the objection is resolved, even though your rates bill will reflect the new rates amount.

The valuation office will ensure that until your objection has been resolved, you do not receive letters of demand for the unpaid amount. Once your objection has been resolved, any amount owing will be debited or credited to your account.