Residents to pay double for rates, taxes

.

File photo

Johannesburg - Thousands of Joburg residents will have to pay for their rates and taxes twice after the property management company responsible for paying them was interdicted from operating, and had its trust accounts frozen amid allegations of financial irregularities.

A liquidator was due to be appointed on Tuesday for Adprop Property Administrators.

The company administers 65 sectional title unit complexes situated mainly in the northern suburbs.

Sectional title unit owners in these complexes had paid their rates and taxes to Adprop under the agreement that Adprop would pay the municipality, but now find themselves in arrears with their municipal services and rates account.

Johann Kilian, speaking for the curators, said meetings have been held with most of the complexes involved.

It has been decided that anyone who paid before December 19 last year will have their accounts reconciled and any available money, after allocations, will be returned, but this will only be a certain percentage in the rand, he said.

Kilian works for Bashir Adams, who was appointed by the Estate Agency Affairs Board (EAAB), who applied for the interdict.

He said all claims must be made through the liquidator.

Those who made payments after December 19 will be refunded in full upon proof of payment.

Kilian said the problem of reconciliation of Adprop’s accounts was a complex one, as it appeared that the management company handed over only a certain portion of the money paid to it for council rates and services.

“It is a huge task to reconcile what is paid and what is owed, and this could take many months,” he said.

The Johannesburg High Court last month granted the EAAB the interdict against Adprop and its directors, Leslie Inglestone and Milton Zinn, after they were found to have illegally operated as estate agents and property administrators without a Fidelity Fund Certificate for more than five years.

anna.cox@inl.co.za

The Star