By Thomas Thale
THE City of Johannesburg has drafted a new by-law designed to streamline its credit control and debt collection efforts, and is now calling on the public to comment on the proposals.
The draft Credit Control and Debt Collection by-law seeks to provide standard procedures and mechanisms for the City's collection of rates and services, but also spells out the rights and obligations of ratepayers and consumers.
The City has invited interested parties to comment on the by-law before 19 January 2005.
The by-law was formulated in terms of Section 98 of the Municipal Systems Act, which requires municipalities to adopt by-laws "giving effect to the municipality's credit control and debt collection policy, its implementation and enforcement", says Adel Kay, Legal Manager of Credit Control Support.
The by-law will be binding on the City of Johannesburg and all its entities, as well as on residents. It covers the collection of money owing for rates, services, collection charges and pre-paid meters.
"It provides certainty for consumers pertaining to debt collection and credit control procedures and mechanisms," says Kay. "It also obliges the City to collect money owed to it for metered services, rates and taxes, thus giving us the legal muscle to act decisively to recover debts owing." The by-law obliges the City to endeavour to ensure accurate billing and get statements out on time.
Section 101 of the draft by-laws gives anyone who has been authorised to act on behalf of the Council the right of access to its premises.
The by-law requires residents who have been overcharged or undercharged to notify the Council. Property owners who have not been billed are also required to notify the Council of the oversight.
New property buyers have to go to the nearest Council offices to pay a deposit and sign a consumer agreement for their services. People who have sold their property are required to cancel their existing consumer agreement by asking for the final reading in writing and settling any outstanding debt.
"Previous owners and new owners' meters are read, de-linked and linked respectively. In other words, the old account is finalised and a new account is activated," explains Kay.
The by-law stipulates punitive measures to be imposed to clamp down on bad debts. Defaulting consumers face termination or interruption of services, unless they pay up or make arrangements with the Council to settle their debts. The Council undertakes to have the services of people who have had their electricity supply cut off, but who have subsequently made arrangements to pay, restored within 24 hours.
People who reconnect the services illegally face a complete removal of services, plus litigation.
Consumers who want to query their accounts are advised to do so through the call centre or the regional municipal offices. "When you log a call at the call centre, you should get a reference number so that the query can be tracked and monitored," says Kay.
For people who are not happy with the outcome of their query, the by-law spells out a procedure to appeal. Kay adds, however, that a client who has logged a query is still expected to continue making regular payments, pending the resolution of his / her complaint.
Although the law requires draft by-laws to be available for comment for 30 days, Kay says the City of Johannesburg decided to give its ratepayers over two months to comment because "we want our clients to interact with us. We are going the extra mile to enable more people to be part of the process".
Once the public's comments have been received, says Kay, it will be up to council to decide which to incorporate into the by-law.
The revised by-law will then be tabled before the mayoral committee for adoption and is expected to be gazetted by June 2005.
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