City of Joburg can WRITE OFF your municipal debt – here is the criteria

Residents in Johannesburg now have until the end of June to apply for the City of Joburg’s Debt Rehabilitation Programme. The initiative was launched at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to help cushion the blow felt by overburdened consumers in the city. It is aimed at helping defaulting City of Joburg residents up to date with their municipal accounts.

Those who can apply for the debt write off include residential customers, small businesses, faith-based organisations or places of worship, and non-profit organisations, Old Age Homes, Orphanages and Body Corporates – but only on the condition that they comply with the qualifying criteria.

WHO CAN APPLY FOR A DEBT WRITE-OFF FROM CITY OF JOBURG?

• To qualify for the debt write off, the market value of the property and all properties owned by the applicant (in the City of Joburg, of course) must not exceed R2,5 million (excluding business, churches, and non-profit organisation customers)
• The account holder’s account balance must be in arrears for more than 90 days at the time of submission of the application.
• The combined gross income from all activities of the account holder/s and spouse must be less than R22 000 per month.
• Where the monthly gross income from both the residential account holder/s is more than R22 000.00, only a percentage of the municipal debt above 90 days shall be written off on the condition that the account holder/s settles that account in full

The City of Joburg says it has appointed a “Debt write-off” committee that will consider all applications and has warned against people “misrepresenting” their applications.

“Should the applicant be found to be misrepresenting themselves, the City will reinstate the original debt and institute immediate termination of services. Should the account holder tamper with the City’s infrastructure, the original debt will be reinstated, and services terminated,” the City added.

Residents keen on applying for the debt write-off can visit www.joburg.org.za

These are the requirements when applying for the write off:

• The account holder must have a valid South African identity document or a document that confirms the legal residence in South Africa.
• The account holder must produce the latest copy of their municipal account.
• Proof of income for the account holder and spouse.
• Certified bank statement, for all accounts, held by the account holder and spouse, for a period of three months before date of application.
• The account holder must complete the application form, in the case of deceased estates, the person in possession of the Letter of Authority from the Master of the Court’s office.
• The account holder and his/her spouse must give the City permission to perform a background check through a reputable credit bureau.
• The account holder must provide meter numbers and meter readings of all meters on their properties