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28/09/2015

Search property for sale or to let in Cape Town. IOLProperty is South Africa's biggest property site... by far.

30/06/2015

Property News. Read the latest real estate-related news sourced from our newspapers and directly from the industry

30/06/2015

Property News. Read the latest real estate-related news sourced from our newspapers and directly from the industry

30/06/2015

Property News. Read the latest real estate-related news sourced from our newspapers and directly from the industry

13/04/2015

Property News. Read the latest real estate-related news sourced from our newspapers and directly from the industry

13/04/2015

Property News. Read the latest real estate-related news sourced from our newspapers and directly from the industry

13/04/2015

Property News. Read the latest real estate-related news sourced from our newspapers and directly from the industry

22/01/2015

John acquired the degree Master in Economics at the University of Stellenbosch before starting his career as an economist in the National Treasury. He was part of the team that implemented the country’s first Medium Term Expenditure Framework in the early days of Minister Trevor Manuel’s tenure as F…

14/01/2015

John acquired the degree Master in Economics at the University of Stellenbosch before starting his career as an economist in the National Treasury. He was part of the team that implemented the country’s first Medium Term Expenditure Framework in the early days of Minister Trevor Manuel’s tenure as F…

22/12/2014

Property News. Read the latest real estate-related news sourced from our newspapers and directly from the industry

02/12/2014

Landlords concerned as rates, taxes spike

Landlords are becoming increasingly concerned about the growth in the cost of rates and taxes, which have spiked at two-and-a-half times the inflation rate, results of the latest research conducted for the SA Property Owners' Association (Sapoa) show.

Rates and taxes were the second-fastest growing operating cost item for property investors behind electricity and now cost twice as much as a decade ago, said analysts at INVESTMENT Property Databank.

Released this week, it examines commercial property rates and taxes in the country's eight largest municipalities.

Neil Gopal, the chief executive of Sapoa, said yesterday that rising operating costs threatened the sustainability of net returns across the spectrum of commercial and industrial property INVESTMENT. "Real increases in rates and taxes have been pronounced in the retail sector. Since 2007, retail property rates and taxes have grown by inflation plus 11.6 percent."

He said total operating costs for commercial properties this year averaged R47 per square metre, of which R11.60 a square metre went to municipal rates and taxes. This meant they effectively doubled in real terms since 2000, when rates and taxes accounted for R4.93 a square metre, he said.

The report also highlights that rates and taxes have increased at a higher rate than commercial property values since the global financial crisis and subsequent recession.

Gopal said this growth had by June this year resulted in an over-recovery of commercial rates and taxes of about 12 percent and there was little likelihood the gap would close in the foreseeable future.

The report also found a weak relationship between a property's market value and the level of rates and taxes levied, with the largest mis-pricing in the office and industrial sectors, which were where properties had unique characteristics that could impact their value.

It also stressed that some smaller municipalities attract more built INVESTMENT by changing their rates policies.

Nelson Mandela Bay, Buffalo City and Mangaung charged commercial property rates of more than 2 cents in the rand, which was not considered pro-business. Gopal said a "cents in the rand" rate could act as a catalyst to increase INVESTMENT flows.

Sapoa KwaZulu-Natal regional chairman Edwin van Niekerk echoed this, stressing that municipalities would do well to expand the rates base rather than simply increasing the burden on existing landlords. "Rates and the cost of doing business are a key in corporate location decisions. It's a balancing act that cities get wrong at their peril."

However, the challenge facing municipalities is that property rates and taxes were a key generator of revenue and this year accounted for 17 percent of revenue for the eight municipalities included in the study.

Business Report

26/11/2014

'Time to criminalise lockouts'

There is an increase in the number of tenants who turn to the police for intervention in cases of unlawful lockouts and disconnection of electricity and water supply to the leased dwellings.

The provincial Rental Housing Tribunals are empowered to hear such disputes on an urgent basis and have GRANTED urgent orders since 2008.

This amendment to the Rental Housing Act was to prevent costly court actions, where in most instances, tenants would have to engage the services of attorneys and advocates.

The Act makes a landowner's unlawful action an offence and punishable on conviction to a fine or imprisonment not exceeding two years, or to both such fine and such imprisonment.

The police do not get involved in these unlawful acts, since they are not a criminal offence but a civil dispute.

There are good and bad landowners, tenants, letting agents and members of the South African Police Service interlocked in tenancy relationships.

Some unscrupulous tenants and landowners have used their police "friends" to intervene in their civil disputes to avoid the costly legal route. In so doing, they are guilty of bypassing the rule of law.

There is a dire need for an intervention programme for the police to handle unlawful actions with directives from the national ministry.

The Sheriffs' Act and the Magistrates' Courts Act must be amended to provide for powers to execute the orders of the Rental Housing Tribunals.

Perhaps a better approach would be to introduce changes to the criminal law to make unlawful actions a criminal act.

The Organisation of Civic Rights has argued the case for criminal sanctions since 1996 as an effective interventionary measure.

The only remedy available to a tenant is a civil remedy, in particular the spoliation order.

A court or tribunal will GRANT an order to have the utility switched on or reconnected, or the dwelling restored to the tenant who was deprived and disturbed of the use and enjoyment of the leased dwelling.

Other remedies which a tenant would have in such an event are:

The cancellation of the lease contract.
An interdict restraining the landlord's conduct.
A claim for damages and for losses sustained as a result of the illegal lockout or utility shut-off.
However, the remedies available offer little comfort to tenants who have been evicted at a time when the courts are inaccessible, as for example, when the unlawful steps are being carried out after hours and over weekends, and the fact that a tenant is unable to afford the legal costs for engaging the services of an attorney or advocate or both.

Moreover, some landowners have found ways to prevent the courts from GRANTING urgent relief to tenants.

The time has come for the government to make illegal lockouts and disconnection of basic services a criminal offence.

The police must be empowered to have the utility reconnected or to reinstate a tenant unlawfully evicted should the landowner fail to produce a valid court order for the ejectment of the tenant.

This would mean close co-ordination between the departments of police, human settlements and justice to find common grounds for a speedy and effective resolution to landowners and their representatives' unlawful actions.

Dr Sayed Iqbal Mohamed
Chairman of Organisation of Civic Rights
Tenant Issues
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