Erget Tareke is one of the 4,000 residents of the Bole Bulbula condominium that penned a letter to the Addis Abeba Revenues Bureau pleading for postponement of the revised property tax.

She became a proud homeowner of a three-bedroom condominium house four years ago, but the partially finished accommodations lacking electrical lines and a sewerage system prevented the family from moving in. Following the retirement of her husband from the military a year and a half ago, they had to leave the residential camp near the Signal area and confront the challenge of living with their six children.

"My husbands' pension is our only income source," she told Fortune.

Besides the 3,000 Br pension fund, Erget has been seeking financial assistance from relatives abroad to pool in much-needed financial support. However, the 40-year-old is experiencing anxiety due to the impending tax and is unsure about the obligation to pay taxes on an unfinished property.

"We're using remnants of the infrastructure that the contractor left," she told Fortune.

Condominiums housing projects are a subsidised housing initiative from two decades ago that sought to provide homes to urbanites who managed to save a certain portion of the construction costs, with the city administration lending the rest in 40:60 and 20:80 schemes.

Although they were previously exempt from taxes, these properties are now subject to newly recalibrated property tax rates that consider factors such as construction materials, property purpose, and location when calculating taxes.

A residential condominium unit with a 120sqm size, similar to Erget's house, is set to have its owner subjected to an annual property tax of around 13,871 Br per the revised rates.

Homeowners dismayed over the scheme that included incomplete infrastructures from eight community associations across the 52 blocks of the Bole Bulbula condominium sites came together under a single union to file a complaint to the city administration.

Yohannes Fantahun is a member of the steering committee behind the 4,000-strong union. He has saved up his 40pc share and was given a grace period by the Addis Abeba Housing Development Corporation for full payments as his house remains incomplete.

He questions why the same courtesy could not be applied to the property taxes that was sprung on the residents a couple of months ago. Yohannes claims that representatives have been scouring the Weredas at the Bole district over the past 12 days trying to find a tax appeal hearing committee to no avail.

"Our pleas have fallen on deaf ears," he told Fortune.

The Addis Abeba City Revenues Bureau, headed by Adem Nuri, dispatched the revised property tax rates in April. The bureau outlined plans to collect up to nine billion from property tax in the forthcoming budget year.

Adem stated that districts were ordered three weeks ago to form hearing committees comprised of members from land management, finance and revenues bureaus to tend to disputes between taxpayers and collectors. He said that the human capital shortage has impeded the formation of committees up to the Wereda level while the degree of completion of the homes is considered before the taxes are levied.

"The taxes will pay for the infrastructure," Adem told Fortune.

The Woreda 12 Administration Bureau, which has 86,000 households, including the Bole Bulbula condominium residents, receives at least three complaints a day related to the property tax.

"We don't have a properly formed committee," said Zerihun Teka, head of the Bureau. He explained that Weredas does not have the mandate to grant grace periods but has readjusted rates for two residents based on their claims.

Several businesses in the capital have also had their feathers rattled upon hearing of the imposition of the revised property tax rates. Landlords have plastered announcements on the walls of their buildings informing tenants of an upcoming rental fee increment a day after the restriction set by the city administration expires in July.

Rehima Dagne runs a small gift shop inside the KKARE Building, located in the heart of the capital around the Mexico area. She sells chocolates, flowers and photo frames in a small six square metre shop on the second floor.

The building administrators plan to call a meeting with all the tenants for a discussion on a possible raise. However, poor market conditions compounded by inflation and a 10,000 Br rental fee have the 27-year-old at the breaking point.