May 2022 Newsletter

Good Day clients and viewers,

We are pleased to send to you, with our compliments, this month’s edition of our newsletter. This is our first Newsletter, from our new Website. We are sure that you will find it to be interesting and useful.

One of your unavoidable ongoing expenses as a landowner is the monthly rates bill levied by your local municipality. As high as you think your rates may be now, they could get a lot worse if you use your property for something illegal or unauthorised. That will open the door to your municipality to impose a “penalty rate” on you.

We illustrate with reference to a case in which Johannesburg property owners faced a quadrupled rates bill after they let out two rooms in their house to students without municipal authority. The Supreme Court of Appeal upheld that increase, and whilst every municipality will have its own rates and land use policies, the principle is there – unlawful land use is likely to get expensive!

Please feel free to share this with friends and colleagues.

Regards,

Gerhard Maré & Associates