If you are a property owner in Nairobi and you have not been remitting your land rates fees to the City Council of Nairobi, you have got reasons to have sleepless nights, writes HAROLD AYODO?
Reality is now sinking in that the cash strapped City Council of Nairobi (CCN) could auction the property of defaulters over outstanding rates of Sh12.8 billion.
City Hall may soon be on a selling spree to the highest bidders to recover its money once it secures court orders in line with the law.
For starters, land rates are annual levies paid to local authorities by property owners as provided in the Valuation for Rating Act.
Civic bodies use the annual tariffs as part of their revenue collections towards improving services within their jurisdictions.
However, schools, hospitals, churches, morgues, cemeteries, national and game parks and charitable institutions are exempted from the duty.
??CCN acting chief accountant in charge of rates Peter Muriithi says figures on defaulters on rates are mind-boggling.
“Land buying companies in Eastlands owe us accumulated unpaid rates of Sh7.8 billion,” Muriithi says.
?Even residents of the leafy suburbs like Karen and Runda have accumulated unpaid annual revenues running into billions of shillings.
?“Some residents of Karen and Lang’ata associations owe us up to Sh2 billion while those in Runda are yet to pay millions of shillings,” Muriithi says.
According to Muriithi, majority of palatial homes in Runda sit on a quarter acre of land and should pay rates of about Sh42,000 annually.
?“We have sold some residential houses over the years over unpaid accumulated rates and have started the legal process of doing the same — via public auction,” he says.
