City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality review: Duplicate rates account for same property

My property consisted of two separate stands or erven, Stand R/127 Brooklyn and Stand R/125 Brooklyn, which had a combined Tshwane account number [protected] with referral Stand R/125 Brooklyn.

The two stands were consolidated in 2008 with approval of the City of Tshwane, and a new erf number for the same but now consolidated property was allocated, namely Stand 894 Brooklyn.

The Tshwane invoices received continued under account number [protected] with Stand 000125 Brooklyn as referral, despite numerous letters to Tshwane to use the new stand number. I paid these invoices and the account was and remains fully paid up.

In 2012 I received an arrears account of several thousand Rand for Stand 894 under a new and unknown account number namely [protected].

I wrote letters and provided all the proof that this new account number is a duplicate for the same property, and that it is fully paid up under the old account number. The problem seemed to be resolved, but then after a few years I again received invoices for apparent arrears on the second/duplicate account number [protected], while the old account [protected] for the same property was fully paid. I once again provided proof and things went quiet - for a while.

This pattern repeated itself about 5 times until I declared a dispute with the City of Tshwane in terms of the Municipal Systems Act (32 of 2000) in July 2022, and got acknowledgement on 1 August 2022 from the City of Tshwane with reference number D-D 1254/12.

Despite the above I subsequently received numerous letters of demand and notices of termination of my services, including actual disconnections of my electricity for the alleged arrears.

Eventually the account number [protected] was "scrapped" and most of the alleged arrears were nullified, but in excess of R30 000-00 for legal notices and related costs was carried over to the paid-up account [protected].

Simultaneously the municipal valuation for Stand 894 went up from R1 800 000 to R2 800 000 without any communication in that regard from the City of Tshwane.

I object to the transfer of costs from a faulty account (which should never have existed) to my municipal account.

I object to the unwarranted increase with R1 [protected] of the municipal valuation for Stand 894.