Property owners in three of the country’s four city councils owe the respective councils at least K30 billion in unpaid city rates, stifling service delivery in the process.
The amount is an increase from K16 billion reported three years ago.
Malawi Local Government Association (Malga) data show that Lilongwe City Council is owed K15 billion, Blantyre City Council is owed K9 billion and Zomba City Council K6.6 billion.
On Friday, Blantyre City issued a notice listing 76 properties with outstanding city rates totalling K1.5 billion.
In the notice signed by director of legal services Mphatso Matandika, the council warned that it will commence seizure and sale proceedings in the High Court of Malawi against the listed properties after 30 days.
According to the notice, the seizure and sale legal process will only be stopped upon settlement of the arrears before the expiry of the 30-day period.
Malawi Housing Corporation (MHC) owes Blantyre City K960 million in arrears, according to the notice.
In an interview yesterday, Blantyre City chief executive officer Dennis Chinseu corroborated the K9 billion and said that recovery efforts are in progress.
“Non-payment of city rates affects our general operations because we usually use the collected funds for service provision operations,” he said.
Chinseu justified the move to begin proceedings in the High Court, stating that it is the last resort after sending reminders to the property owners.
MHC spokesperson Ernestina Lunguzi asked for more time before commenting.
In an interview, Malga executive director Hadrod Mkandawire said the direction taken by Blantyre City is both legal and the right one to recover funds.
He said other councils such as Zomba City have been engaging major institutional defaulters and entering into structured payment agreement plans, introducing surcharge windows to encourage defaulters to settle the principal amount and undertaking awareness.
In 2022, property owners owed Lilongwe City K11 billion, Blantyre City K1.7 billion, Zomba City K3.4 billion and Mzuzu City Council K1.7 billion.
Revelations about outstanding debts come as a Malga assessment released early this month showed that councils continue to suffer underfunding.
In its assessment, Malga found that local government authorities received K41.4 billion out of the budgeted K58.8 billion in the first quarter of 2025/26 financial year, representing a K17.4 billion shortfall.
The deficit comprises K8.8 billion for the recurrent budget and K8.7 billion for the development budget in the 2025/26 financial year that started on April 1 2025.
During the period under review, municipalities received the lowest percentage for the quarter at eight percent or K119 million out of K1.5 billion while district councils got K32.3 billion out of K41.8 billion, representing 77 percent and cities at 58 percent or K8.9 billion out of K15.5 billion.
