Dear Clients
Schindlers offers the following fixed fee services. Please note that the prices quoted are ex vat.
Please note further that, any other legal assistance that you might need outside of the scope of these services, will be charged for at our ordinary hourly rate as per our standard fee agreement for 2018 (a copy of which is available upon request).
SUBMITTING OBJECTION TO PROPERTY VALUATION OR CATEGORISATION ON 2018 GV
We charge R3500 (Ex VAT and disbursements), but this includes everything necessary to submit and to get your outcome form COJ. Note that it ordinarily takes at least a year before outcomes are released and in some cases a year and a half to two years, and we will follow up during this time to ensure that every single client’s outcome is released.
Our fixed charge does not include the following:
- If client is not happy with the outcome, filing an appeal – we charge separately for that (although of course we hope it never comes to that);
- We are not valuers and cannot give valuation advise on what value the submit. However, we can help with legal advice on the categorisation (provided that it is not a complex and novel point of law, which we would have to treat as a separate instruction and bill the client on our ordinary rate for);
- We can obtain a basic automated valuation report for client, at R 100 ex vat. We can obtain a comprehensive automated valuation report for client, at R 350 ex vat. Or we can refer client to valuers, who will charge at their ordinary rates – normally it costs about R 5,500 for a residential valuation or around R 10k – R 15k for a commercial valuation per property. The valuers do all apply discounts for bulk instructions on property portfolios. If the dispute has a large monetary value, we definitely recommend using the valuers because doing a proper valuation now will save you time and money later. We have seen cases of clients who have not done with beforehand fighting tooth and nail for years, only to find out when in court 4 years later, then it comes to light their own assessment of the valuation was incorrect and that they are wrong – they have to abandon the case, they lose all the legal fees that they have paid and end up having to pay COJ’s legal fees, as well as ending up having to pay the amount that they disputed all along plus interest that has accrue don it. We advocate getting professional advice upfront to avoid this from happening;
- For the price quoted above we handle only the objection and the outcome. We don’t handle any subsequent dispute that may arise between COJ and client (for example, if COJ is trying to cut client off or sue them, they would need to instruct us separately at our ordinary hourly rate to deal with this).
SUBMITTING OBJECTION TO PROPERTY VALUATION OR CATEGORISATION NOT ON 2018 GV
We have to do this manually at the COJ’s Valuation Department in Braamfontein and there is an extra charge associated with this. We accordingly charge R 2,700 ex vat per instruction. The same qualifications as listed above apply in relation to the scope of this instruction and what our fixed fee does not include.
CHECKING PROPERTY VALUTIONS OR CATEGORISATIONS ON THE 2018 GV
We charge R 150 ex vat per instruction.
BULK INSTRUCTIONS
Where possible we will discount our clients for bulk instructions. However, the extent of the discount will in each case will have to decide on its own merits because sometimes we are able to reduce the amount of work required substantially whereas in other cases we are not. Please email us to inquire about our bulk discounts if you would like to apply for same.
CONTACT DETAILS:
Chantelle Gladwin-Wood
Municipal Law Department
Schindlers Attorneys
Email: [email protected]
ACCEPTANCE OF ABOVE FIXED FEE AGREEMENT BY CLIENT
Signed by _______________________________________ on ___________________________________ on behalf of _________________________________________ in respect of the following property or properties:
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