THROW AWAY assessment hike notices, NEW ones to be issued Jan 1 - Ku Nan

PUTRAJAYA — In yet another attempt to dispel confusion over Kuala Lumpur’s controversial property assessment increase, Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor told owners today to discard the notices they received from KL City Hall (DBKL).

The Federal Territories minister said these should have been letters to inform owners of the proposal to increase the valuation of their properties, as well as to notify them of the December 17 deadline to file their disputes over the move.

New and finalised notices will, however, be issued on January 1, he said.

“When I gave the instructions, I should have told the director or the PKP 'please, before you issue, show me first'... they should have come up with a letter, not the notices first.

“Now I'm caught because the notices have been given out, but the notices, you can discard it,” he told reporters after launching the “Back to School” programme at his ministry here.

The Putrajaya MP claimed that while the new notices to be sent out on January 1 will be final, KL property owners need not make any payment until the special panel on the assessment hike decides on the rate.

“We will have all the unhappiness or complaints or whatever they want to write to us, the day would be December 17 and I was told that opposition MPs want to rally at DBKL.

“I advise them 'no need to rally la' let the rakyat send it to us, it's pointless because I will solve the problem because towards the end, it comes back to me,” he said.

Today, Tengku Adnan reiterated the need for DBKL to increase the property valuation used to determine assessment payments, so that it is consistent with that of independent valuers.

“We have used seven criteria to get the actual value of the rental value of the properties.

“And we're not increasing the rate yet, we have not decided to increase the rate,” he said, adding that the rate could be reduced down to 1 per cent from the current 6 per cent for home owners.

The proposed increase in assessment led to public outcry in recent weeks, after homeowners received notices from the local authority informing them of hikes between 100 and 250 per cent to their existing annual rates.

The issue was exacerbated by the confusion arising from the conflicting announcements made that has left ratepayers uncertain over how much and when they must fork out for their bi-annual assessment payments.

There are 507,800 properties listed under DBKL, 56 per cent or slightly over 284,300 are commercial structures while the remaining 44 per cent or around 223,400 are residential properties.