IN GOOD FAITH
CARMEL RICKARD: Mountainous amount
Rates had to be paid for the rest of the year, even the period after the business owner had sold and left the property, a municipality insisted
Greedy or stupid? You have to wonder about some municipal policy makers. Take a case decided last week by the appeal court involving Amber Mountain Investments, a company that sold some property in the Port Elizabeth area. Before transfer was finalised the company needed a rates clearance certificate. Imagine the shock when the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality presented a bill demanding that rates for the whole 2009/2010 financial year — well over R2m — be paid before the certificate would be issued.To not hold up transfer, Amber Mountain paid, under protest, and the two sides have been in dispute ever since. Its rates policy was clear, said the municipality: a clearance certificate could be issued only on payment of "the full amount ... for the remaining financial year". First the high court found and now the appeal court has said the municipality is not entitled to claim advance rates for the rest of the year as a condition of sale. Municipal policy, to the extent that it appears t...
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