How legal is Tshwane's payment collections

[ViperGTI]

Currently, if you have amounts outstanding on your rates and taxes, whenever you buy prepaid electricity, you don't get a prepaid token but instead, the arrears amounts are deducted.

Two issues are that since the beginning of this year, the municipality has stopped sending me monthly invoices and secondly, for the past 3 months, they've been billing me almost R2000 each month for electricity. I've been on prepaid since last year. They claim that I owe them R5700 but given that almost R6000 in the last 3 invoices is for electricity, they are definitely mistaken.

I've been sending emails, writing a complaint on e-Tshwane and phoned multiple times and I've yet to make contact with anybody. I'm left with 50 units of prepaid electricity so I'm now forced to pay part of this amount but I definitely want to take this issue further.

So how legal is it to simply "take" money from a client, without sending invoices in the first place, and with no practical way for the client to dispute the amount invoiced.

 

[Grubscrew]

I would be a good idea to take the day off and go to one of their walk in centres to get this resolved.

 

[Beachless]

Im In the same boat as you, I just paid another R1500 for something I shouldnt have just because I dont have the time to run around and prove to them they screwed up(I phoned, logged tickets, went to my local municipality).
It feels like extortion.
Im planning on building a new place that will be as free of tshwane as possible and as close to a state where they cant cut any services that matter.

 

[ViperGTI]

I would be a good idea to take the day off and go to one of their walk in centres to get this resolved.

Yes, but not really practical. It is not as if they'll pay for my time that I need to be there to sort out their nonsense.

With other organisations, if there is an issue on your bill or with the service, you can refuse payment as a way of protest for them to sort your account out first. It basically forces the provider to act. With these idiots, that option is impossible.

 

[ViperGTI]

I'd like to do some research on how legal this practice is and (I have no idea how yet... research phase), maybe challenge it in court or something to get the practice scrapped. That will force them to either answer their phones / respond to emails or go broke.

 

[Beachless]

I'd like to do some research on how legal this practice is and (I have no idea how yet... research phase), maybe challenge it in court or something to get the practice scrapped. That will force them to either answer their phones / respond to emails or go broke.

If you have the time and patience you can go to the small claims court and claim for your time and costs to resolve their issues.

If I had the time I would do that.

 

[OHNO]

> the municipality has stopped sending me monthly invoices and secondly, for the past 3 months

Viper, I have no advice how to sort out your billing problem. I do have advice though getting your statements. Register on the Tshwane website. That allows you to see your invoices online, and you can also download them. You can also set that you don't want it posted but emailed to you. This works great and I had no problems since I started this about 2 years ago.

 

[AstroTurf]

Get hold of a DA Councillor.

 

[ViperGTI]

> the municipality has stopped sending me monthly invoices and secondly, for the past 3 months

Viper, I have no advice how to sort out your billing problem. I do have advice though getting your statements. Register on the Tshwane website. That allows you to see your invoices online, and you can also download them. You can also set that you don't want it posted but emailed to you. This works great and I had no problems since I started this about 2 years ago.

I've been receiving statements via email for years now and then it suddenly stopped beginning of this year. Got my first email statement this year on 27th of last month and a letter of demand on the 1st.

I'll maybe try the DA thing.

 

[blowdart18]

I've been receiving statements via email for years now and then it suddenly stopped beginning of this year. Got my first email statement this year on 27th of last month and a letter of demand on the 1st.

I'll maybe try the DA thing.

You sure they have not registered your account to another person, 1) you stopped getting invoices, 2) being charged for electricity. 3) you being charged and told you now owe them . . . . Maybe a mix up with another account.

 

[sajunky]

Currently, if you have amounts outstanding on your rates and taxes, whenever you buy prepaid electricity, you don't get a prepaid token but instead, the arrears amounts are deducted.

It is definitely illegal. They take from you right to decide what you are paying for.

 

[ViperGTI]

Just a quick update, got feedback from the DA and they advised me to log a formal dispute and get a reference number. They sent me a pdf form to complete and send it to disputes[at]tshwane.gov.za. Within an hour or two they phoned me and responded to my email with a reference number. Also, as long as a formal dispute is registered, they are not allowed to suspend any services due to non-payment.

So far things are looking positive.

 

[Beachless]

Just a quick update, got feedback from the DA and they advised me to log a formal dispute and get a reference number. They sent me a pdf form to complete and send it to disputes[at]tshwane.gov.za. Within an hour or two they phoned me and responded to my email with a reference number. Also, as long as a formal dispute is registered, they are not allowed to suspend any services due to non-payment.

So far things are looking positive.

Can you perhaps share that document?

 

[ViperGTI]

Found an online link to the document:
http://www.tshwane.gov.za/sites/Residents/Services/Documents/Request to Resolve Disputes.pdf

 

[sajunky]

Nice to hear it is on the track and learn how to exercise our liberty.