admin
The administrator of a property that is being rented by a funeral parlour yesterday came to the Chronicle offices with bills that revealed that rates had jumped from $121,50 in December last year to $1 982,91 in January.
“These guys are already struggling to pay $2 000 monthly rent. This madness by council will make it become almost double. I think the decision by council to increase rates was ill timed and will result in the closure of more businesses in the city. Council should be
crafting business friendly policies to help the ailing businesses in the city to recover,” said the administrator.
A businessman whose property is being rented by a church in the city centre said he was shocked to get a bill showing that rates for the building had increased from $155 in December to $2 028,51 in January.
He said his tenants had already paid their rent for January and he was now faced with the “unpleasant task” of informing them to top up.
“I tried to engage council over the issue, but I did not get a satisfactory response. An official at council told me that the increase was shown in the budget proposal for 2012. He said if we were against it, we should have expressed it in writing. The official said it was
too late to reverse the increases because the period to lodge disagreements was long past,” said the businessman.
The owner of a block of residential flats in the city centre said he was stunned to get a bill showing that rates had increased to $501,58 from $41 last year.
“I have four tenants at the flat they used to share the money for rates, pay their individual water bill plus $325 for rent. With the huge increase, they will be paying more than $500 each with effect from January. I have no option but to pass the increase to them. I do not know how they will take it when I tell them,” said the property owner who asked not to be named.
“Look at the new bill, it has a balance brought forward of $556, which shows that these people could hardly afford the rates before they were increased. Where does the city council expect people to get so much money? Civil servants have already been excluded
from residential flats because they earn about $250 every month,” said the property owner.
A business woman who rents a property for $4 000 every month, said her landlord had informed her that the rent will increase by almost 100 percent because of a “shocking” increase in rates.
“The rates went up by an unbelievable $3 354. It is part of our lease agreement that I will pay all the rates due for the building. I already owe council about $4 500. This increase has shown me the futility of trying to settle my bill. There is no way I can raise $8 000
for rent every month. I will have to close shop before the money accumulates to a truly unmanageable figure,” said the businesswoman.
“If council persists with this unreasonable increase, then they would be directly responsible for the demise of business in the city,” she said.
A comment could not be obtained from the local authority. Council’s senior public relations officer Mrs Nesisa Mpofu had not responded to questions e-mailed to her in the morning, by the time of going to print.
Online Reporter