Computer Assisted Mass Appraisal (CAMA) system
Municipal valuation system developed by Professional South African Valuers
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Automated Master file
creation and maintenance Compatible with
various Deeds office data formats Compatible with all
standard Municipal Accounting systems Flexible valuation
criteria and capture module Various valuation
methodologies supported Mass valuation of all
property types Compatible with any
GIS system Flexible
Document/Pictures/Floor-plan management Valuation Roll
generation and management Export of relevant
data back to Municipal Accounts system MASS-Master for
Municipalities Appeal Board reports
with statistics Final Valuation
Rolls Complete Audit trail
of all Property and Valuation adjustments from Publication to Final
Rolls. Secure data storage
with automated backup
The most comprehensive
property evaluations solution for South African Municipal valuations.
Development of the system was started in 1999 as a joint venture between
M3 & Associates Boland (previously Marais and Associates) and PenSoft CC
(previously t/a Professional Software Solutions). M3 & Associates Knysna
joined the venture in 2006 adding valuable resources, experience and expertise
to the project.
All applications were redesigned to comply with the requirements of the Municipal Property Rates Act 6 of 2004.
The system was developed with the latest industry standard, .NET, technology and data is secured in one of the best industry standard SQL database server solutions available.
MASS incorporates a Matcher module to link records of properties registered with the Deeds office to existing properties in the Municipality accounts system. Most records are linked automatically.
The MASS Deeds-office data-import module automatically import and link deeds-office data from various deeds-office data-formats; Deeds-office .UDF, .TDF, .CSV and .TXT formats as well as the Windeed .CSV format. (Excel formats are not accepted due to the lack of detail information supplied in this format). Deeds-office data-updates are periodically added as required.
All deeds-office data is stored, unaltered, in the MASS database for reference purposes.
Deeds-office records not linked and without Owners or Extents are identified and separated for further attention.
Due to the many different accounting systems in use by South African Municipalities and the lack of a standardised Electronic Data Interchange format, the MASS Municipality-data-import module links accounting system data through by means of a visual presentation of the data received. This allow the manual mapping of data elements and property identification fields to a standardised format in the MASS application. Even if the Municipal-accounting system data is inadequate for Valuation purposes, MASS will link the relevant Key fields to MASS property records enabling the return of data to the Municipality with the original Municipal-accounting-system key to ensure compatibility of the data-sets. The Surveyor General (SG) keys are also generated and returned.
All municipal data is stored, unaltered, in the MASS database for reference purposes.
The creation of records, for properties not registered and not received from the Municipality, are also allowed. These records are also stored as preliminary deeds-office records in the MASS database. Manual creation of records is necessitated by the need to identify properties in townships under development and other properties not registered by Municipalities and/or Owners for any other reason.
Remaining unlinked Deeds-office and Municipality records are presented visually, side-by-side, for manual linking or identification for further attention. Matched properties are added to the relevant valuation roll records to be valued in the MASS Valuer application.
The resultant three sets of data are initially presented to the Municipality in .CSV (spreadsheet compatible) format for scrutiny. The sets are; Properties matched between Municipality and Deeds-office, Deeds-office properties not matched and Municipal properties not matched.
The resultant master file is presented to the Municipality in any of the following formats:
periodically generated .CSV (spreadsheet compatible) files,
periodically generated .XML files with a MASS Viewer application or
as a copy of the complete master-file database with the MASS-Master application.
Data capture criteria are defined in the MASS field forms set-up module. This ensure flexibility to cater for the valuation model/s preferred by the Valuer as well as the specific requirements of individual Municipalities. Various valuation methods may also be applied.
Definitions provided by the Valuer, in the MASS field forms set-up module, limit data-capturers to select pre-determined criteria during the capture process to speed up the data-capturing process. This also enhances the quality and speed of the data-capture process.
The use of default values, also defined in the MASS field forms set-up module, greatly reduce the volume of data to be captured. Only properties with criteria that differ from the norm of it's homogeneous region need additional attention.
Various criteria may be defined individually for Residential, Commercial, Agricultural and specialised properties.
Market approach, Cost approach as well as income approach valuation methodologies may be used by linking particular areas or properties to a particular methodology.
Defining homogeneous regions for Residential and Agricultural purposes is done by the Valuer and not fixed by the application. This improves the quality of valuations by allowing the Valuer to group similarly valued properties of various geographic regions into one homogeneous region. This is helpful when a geographic region with few sales are analysed.
Residential:
Various valuation approaches may be used as well as the so-called points-system whereby the value-forming attributes are linked to a point-value and expressed as Rand/m².
The MASS Valuation and Sales Analysis module provide an automated analysis per homogeneous region with detailed statistics. Using these statistics, the Valuer may improve the results by changing certain parameters. The Valuer may also make use of external applications to calculate regression line values to be used by MASS.
Commercial:
Cost approach and Income approach methods are determined per property and both methods are fully supported.
Agricultural:
Defining homogeneous regions with R/m² or R/Ha values per Land Category is also done by the Valuer and applied during the Valuation calculation.
Due to the variety of professional, specialised GIS systems available in the market and the variety of GIS systems already in used by Valuers and Municipalities, MASS is not bound to any specific GIS system. This leaves the Municipality and/or Valuer free to select any available GIS product that best suits the specific needs if and when required.
Mass does, however, facilitate easy GIS lookups if used in conjunction with a GIS system that allow location of properties by key.
MASS facilitates the storage and display of various document types, linked to each property. These documents are included in the integrated backup solution and may be included in the Sync to the MASS-Master system at Municipal offices.
As well as any other files or documents deemed relevant to any specific property.
Valuations rolls are generated as per the requirements (and example) published in the Municipal Property Rates Act 6 of 2004. All rolls include a summary of values per Category at the end of the roll.
Roll are generated simultaneously in 2 formats:-
as PDF (Acrobat reader required) format for printing as well as electronic storage and direct publication to the Municipal web site if required.
as .CSV (MS Excel compatible) text format. This format is accepted by most Municipal accounting systems for direct importation and update of the Municipal-accounts system.
.XML (Extensible Mark-up Language) files are the latest format for Electronic Data Interchange and also available although no known Municipal-accounts system can currently handle this format yet.
Rolls are generated at various stages of the valuation process:-
When publication of the Valuation Roll is due. (After initial valuation process was completed)
When final publication of the Valuation Roll is due. (After the review process has completed and the roll is finalised)
Provisional rolls may also be generated at any stage of the valuation process.
MASS-Master is available for installation and use on a computer or computers at Municipal offices. It enables the Municipality to monitor the progress, in real time, of the Valuation process from start to finish. It also enables the Municipality to monitor the quality of data produced and help to ensure compatibility with data on the Municipal-accounting system.
All relevant database-data and attached documents (floor-plans, sectional title plans etc.) are synchronised (via Windows Live Sync * ) directly from the Valuer's data-server to the Municipality's computer running MASS-Master.
The ability to directly update the data of Municipal records on the Valuers MASS Valuation system and to keep the data on the Municipal-accounting system in synchronisation is also facilitated through the use of MASS-Master.
Generation of Valuation notification letters as well as Appeal Board decision notification letters.
MASS-Master is a stand-alone application to be installed on a 32 or 64 bit computer running a MS Windows XP * service pack 3, Vista * or Windows 7 * operating system. The MASS-Master application and database-software will be installed and maintained by PenSoft CC (via internet access) but standard computer maintenance and security-related software on this computer will stay the responsibility of the Municipality.
The standard computer hardware requirements for the installed operating system is sufficient although a minimum of 2GB RAM for XP based computers and 4GB RAM for Vista or Windows 7 based computers is recommended.
Internet access and registration of a Microsoft Live ID, to sign on to the Windows Live Sync service, will be necessary to enable real-time data-synchronisation.
Firebird database manager to access the database records. (Free - Open Source)
MS Office * (MS Word, MS Excel etc.) is not required but the installation of the open-source OpenOffice.org suite is recommended. (Free - Open Source)
Adobe Reader to view PDF documents. (Free - Adobe corporation)
CAD software or a compatible viewer application may be required to view or print CAD files if required.
After completion of the review process by the Valuer, the following reports and data-files are generated:-
Appeal Board reports that list all properties with Valuer adjustments of more than 10% as well as properties of which the value has been disputed.
Electronic data-files that contain ALL records of properties adjusted since the original publication of the Valuation-Roll for use by the Municipality.
A separate report with preliminary statistics of the amounts of properties disputed and appealed.
After completion of the review process by the Appeal Board and the Valuer, all Valuation Rolls and data files are re-generated with the updated information.
The following reports and data-files are also generated:-
Electronic data-files that contain ALL records of properties adjusted since the original publication of the Valuation-Roll for use by the Municipality.
A separate report with final statistics of the amounts of properties disputed and appealed.
After completion of the Valuation process and upon Publication of each Valuation-Roll, records are locked to prohibit any changes.
History records are created and stored when any property is adjusted during the review process and new records are created to reflect the relevant changes. Copies of Notification and Motivation letters, as sent to property owners, are also stored in electronic format.
This process is repeated for each Supplementary Valuation resulting in a complete audit trail of all changes to property valuations during the full valuation period.
Data is stored on a data-server with no unauthorised read or write access to other computers on the LAN or WAN. Daily backups are made and stored locally as well as off-site on a secure backup-server. A copy of the database, serving as an additional backup, is also maintained on a computer in the Municipal office for use by the MASS- Master application.
*Copyright Microsoft Corporation ®TM
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