Johannesburg - The City of Joburg has been accused of breaking a Constitutional Court ruling which states that municipal debt should not be transferred to the new owner.
Rob Ryan said he is desperate about his situation with the city demanding R724000 for the old property owner’s debt. And, he says, he believes he is not alone.
He bought a building in Ferndale that had been vacant for about a year. The building was sold by liquidator, Resolution Trust, on behalf of Standard Bank, the bond holder.
The previous owner had run up a municipal bill of about R1million before disconnection.
Ryan’s offer to purchase stated clearly that any outstanding
municipal accounts were the seller’s responsibility.
“The transferring attorney requested figures, got a figure of R485000, which we paid and a clearance certificate was issued after which transfer took place,” he said.
“However, when approaching the city to get an account and the electricity reconnected, we were told that the balance of R724 000 from the previous owner had to be settled first.
“On obtaining legal opinion, we were advised that the Constitutional Court ruled in 2017 in Jordaan and others v City of Tshwane, that the debt of the previous owner cannot be transferred to the new owner.
“My lawyers have written to the city but have had zero response. I am now at the point of issuing a summons against the city to get them to engage about resolving my account and connection.
“I run the building on generator power at great cost,” he said, adding that he wondered how many
other people found themselves in this situation.
The city said after an investigation, it advised that the new owner was not liable for the previous owner’s debt.
City spokesperson Kgamanyane Stan Maphologela said arrangements can be made for the new owner to complete a new services agreement and pay the deposit and re-installation fee for the services to be connected as per the normal process for new connections.
“The customer may advise us which centre he/she will be visiting for us to brief the centre management,” he said.
Maphologela added the debt would be pursued from the previous owner of the property.
Councillor Tim Truluck writes in his newsletter:
About five years after the handling of billing issues was last regionalised, and subsequently disastrously centralised, it has moved back to the regional offices again.
For this, we thank the current mayoral committee member for finance, Funzela Ngobeni.
It should go a long way in resolving the billing issues in the city.
As at the end of July, there were about 8300 billing problems in
the city. This is down from 13100 in January.
This should start improving more now that the billing resolutions will be done at the regional offices.
There are 31 in the seven city regions which will be able to resolve billing issues without residents having to be shunted from pillar to post. There are also meter readers who are available to go out and check readings.