by Angela Rivers | Sep 16, 2022 | News
In the press:
Saturday Star, 9 September 2022
The City of Joburg is once again being taken to court by the residential housing industry over billing issues, this time along with its water supplier Johannesburg Water, regarding problematic sewerage charges.
Backbilling and a disputed change in the sewerage tariff structure of many inner city residential buildings has sent thousands of residents’ accounts soaring, resulting in a sewerage claim amounting to about R22 million. Similar issues are behind a court application already in place against COJ over a refuse-removal bill of R21m.
Read the full article HERE.
Listen to Thabiso Kotane in conversation with Angela Rivers on 98.7 Power Drive HERE
Thabiso Kotane speaks to Angela Rivers, MD of the Johannesburg Property Owners and Managers Association (JPOMA) about billing issues in the City of Johannesburg. The City of Joburg (CoJ) is racking up huge legal costs by failing to address billing issues raised by residents timeously, before they reach the courts. It routinely opposes applications, which it then loses with costs – which are paid out of revenue squeezed out of ratepayers. This is a vicious cycle that results in a further burden of unfair tariff increases that residents have no choice but to shoulder, according to the Johannesburg Property Owners and Managers Association (JPOMA).
PUBLISHED: Wednesday 14 September 2022
by Angela Rivers | Jul 27, 2022 | News
An opinion piece by Angela Rivers published on BusinessLive on 25 July 2022
Ebrahim Harvey’s analysis of the state of Johannesburg (“The fall of the once great city of Johannesburg” Business Day, 19 July”) touched a nerve for those of us who are heavily invested in the city. The Johannesburg Property Owners and Managers Association (JPOMA) was established nearly 20 years ago, in 2003, to represent credible landlords, managing agents and property owners active in the inner city, and over the years grew from four to 58 members with over 40 000 affordable housing units between them, housing over 200 000 tenants at this time.
Collectively our members pay the City of Johannesburg over R80 million per month. We know the inner city, care deeply about its welfare, and we’ve been working hard for two decades in an effort to maintain reasonable standards for those living and providing homes for tenants here.
This task is becoming harder by the day, with a disproportionate percentage of time spent on trying to unravel nightmarish billing issues and attempting to penetrate a hostile bureaucracy whose generally obstructive attitude belies COJ’s claims of being investor friendly.
City officials claim in media interviews that they are reclaiming the inner city and like to paint a picture of a world-class city. Member of the mayoral committee (MMC) for housing, Mlungisi Mabaso, claimed recently that they had acquired “a lot of” buildings through the Johannesburg Social Housing Company (Joshco) and that he himself had opened “quite a few” that had been converted into residential buildings. We did the homework, but we have been unable to find evidence of even one such success story.
Instead, we are inundated with urgent applications from managers of buildings neighbouring several hijacked, government-owned Joshco buildings, whose residents fear for their lives as a result of the lawlessness that prevails. One example, Casa Mia in Soper Street, Berea, has been the subject of numerous complaints, from gunshots being fired from the building – a resident in a building across the road provided evidence of having been hit by a stray bullet – to muggings right outside, and sewerage draining into the street; and no action forthcoming from COJ despite numerous urgent appeals.
JPOMA members are voluntarily paying an estimated R12.5 million rand annually to private companies for supplementary services such as cleaning and security, which the City should, but has failed to provide for years.
Meanwhile COJ has just increased its municipal rates this month, amid a great display of supposed transparency and accountability. This while disputes about backbilled tariffs are still in court, and despite breaking its own promises that the City would stop illegally disconnecting buildings that are involved in court disputes.
Business owners who maintain electricity infrastructure for their tenants, which previously qualified for a discounted bulk rate to recoup costs, noted that this month’s bills indicate that they now pay more per unit of electricity than regular business rates, instead of less. This without any notification of a change in a policy that was hard-won and meritorious.
Inner city buildings that were previously converted from commercial into residential zoning as part of the urban development zone (UDZ) have to wade through red tape to reapply for residential tariffs every four years, usage applications lapse and COJ starts billing at commercial rates again. Why this waste of time and resources? Because, the City argues, a landlord “might decide” to change a building back into commercial use. This when millions of rand have been invested to convert properties into affordable housing, which is fully occupied by residential tenants. It is nonsensical regulations such as these that suggest that it is easier to punish those ratepayers who abide by the law, than to sort out the systemic inefficiencies that plague the City.
The picture painted by Harvey in his op ed makes it all seem hopeless, but those of us who are truly invested in Johannesburg refuse to give up hope. There are solutions to the problems, and there are those in the private sector with the expertise and the will to stop the slide and start turning this wagon around. There are also senior COJ officials who make all the right sounds in meetings, and who agree on proposed solutions.
Now if only we can get to the consistent execution of those plans, to a place where our City officials own and drive the change that is needed.
The new increased rates bill begs the question: what exactly are our municipal rates paying for in 2022? As ratepayers we are entitled to answers from our city council. We should not stop asking the difficult questions. Our City’s survival depends on it.
Angela Rivers, GM, JPOMA
by Angela Rivers | Mar 11, 2022 | News
A R21 million-rand – and growing – refuse removal bill is at the center of a court application brought by the Johannesburg Property Owners and Managers Association (JPOMA) against the City of Johannesburg and its contracted refuse collector Pikitup this week. The punitive amount was arrived at by a recalculation of refuse backdated to 2018 on 93 different accounts, which JPOMA and its legal team believe to be both invalid and unlawful in terms of COJ’s own bylaws.
“This is the tip of the iceberg – these back-billed charges continue to grow month on month as more members are coming forward when they see this on their accounts. Instead of engaging our members to find an equitable resolution, the COJ is employing strong-arm tactics to bully owners into signing admissions of debt or face disconnection of other services, unrelated to refuse collection.” So says Angela Rivers, General Manager of JPOMA, a non-profit organisation which represents the interests of property owners and managers and well over 150 000 tenant households in Johannesburg, which collectively pay over R80 million to the City every month.
“Our members’ accounts affect 7 333 separate dwellings in the inner city that house lower- and middle-income tenants, many of whom are economically vulnerable and in no way able to settle three and a half years’ worth of questionable backdated fees,” Rivers elaborates.
The recalculations emanated from a “Revenue Enhancement Project” initiated by the City of Johannesburg, through its Legogo Team. It resulted in the affected properties’ classification being changed without consultation with the owners, or due and consistent consideration of how properties and their refuse requirements are differentiated. JPOMA believes that this resulted in blatantly incorrect classification in many of the cases, with vague, or no substantiation offered. Properties valued at less than R350 000 are not liable for these fees, yet the City is attempting to attach a cost to every single unit, regardless of value, and to backdate claims for refuse that was already removed and paid for.
“It is the City’s duty in terms of the Constitution to provide democratic and accountable governance for local communities, to provide municipal services in a way that is financially and environmentally sustainable and to involve communities in matters of local governance while promoting social and economic development,” states JPOMA in its application. “Users of these services should be treated equitably in the application of tariffs, and poor households should have access to at least basic services that cover no more than operating and maintenance costs.”
The properties in question are all multi-unit residential buildings, inhabited by tenants ranging from the most vulnerable to middle income earners; all people who are sensitive to price shocks, especially in the wake of the National State of Disaster declared in response to the COVID-19 pandemic on 23 March 2020. As COJ completes its backdating process more and more of these tenants will be presented with refuse bills that they cannot pay, severely compromising the affordable rental market.
Most of the affected buildings fall within the Urban Development Zones (UDZs) that were demarcated for tax incentives by the minister as part of the national economic policy initiative designed to invigorate inner city nodes. JPOMA’s members have been active participants in the City Improvement Districts which were formed in the mid-90s to stave off the degradation and dilapidation that plagued the inner city. “Instead of valuing our members doing the work that COJ should be doing, it is trying to squeeze more water from the stone,” says Rivers. She notes, for instance, that their members voluntarily contribute over R630 000 per month to private companies to clean and secure the public spaces in the inner city, which the City has failed to do over a number of years.
In its application, JPOMA highlights a number of irregularities which suggest that the decision to impose these increased, backdated tariffs was taken with an ulterior motive, namely, to target and mulct entities that can nominally pay, with increased and artificial municipal accounts in order to cover shortfalls in the city’s collection process. “It suggests that certain types of owners were targeted, while the City and Pikitup customers are in fact primarily the tenants, not the owners,” states JPOMA.
The result of this action by the City is that owners are held accountable for the past accounts of tenants who in many instances have since moved out of the various properties, which means costs cannot be defrayed.
The affected JPOMA members, which include several emerging black entrepreneurs, all run businesses with very small margins and in many cases will be forced into either down-sizing or liquidating should the retroactive charge go through, states the application. “The knock-on effect will be that there will be a reduction in quality housing supply in the inner city, limiting Johannesburg residents’ ability to work and live in close proximity, as was the explicit intention behind creating the UDZs in the first place,” says Rivers. “This short-sightedness will lead to the City actually losing paying tenants, as these people will move to informal accommodation where no services are paid for. No-one wins in this situation.”
Press-Release-JPOMA-11-March-2022
by Angela Rivers | Nov 5, 2021 | News
JPOMA featured on Special Assignment; Heart of The City, which aired on 19th October 2021.
The episode highlights the tariff and service delivery issues in the inner city. JPOMA (represented by Nic Barnes, Solly Ramalamula and Peter Deane), Schindlers Attorneys and MES were all interviewed for this episode.
Watch the episode on Youtube HERE
by Angela Rivers | Jun 15, 2021 | News
Following JPOMA’s public condemnation of CoJ tariff increases (see press release HERE) the following coverage has appeared in the media;
eNCA
The Johannesburg Property Owners and Managers Association warns that planned water, sewerage and electricity hikes will be devastating for ratepayers. For more, Gareth Edwards speaks to the association’s general manager, Angela Rivers. Courtesy #DStv403
Watch the interview HERE
BusinessTech
The Johannesburg Property Owners & Managers Association (JPOMA) says that proposed council tariff increases facilitated by the City of Johannesburg highlights a complete and utter disregard of the harsh reality faced by inner-city and greater Johannesburg residents during one of the gravest economic downturns in recent memory.
Read the full article HERE
