Chris Von Ulmenstein is no stranger to controversy.

Owner and operator of the Whale Cottage franchise of guest houses, Von Ulmenstein’s guest houses sport pages and pages of colourfully-worded reviews on user-generated review sites, like Trip Advisor, and has been embroiled in a number of public spats in recent years with a variety of individuals in the local hospitality industry.

While infighting is common in any industry, Von Ulmenstein has attained near-celebrity status for contention, with a number of news articles, petitions, and satirical sites dedicated to her having sprung in the last few years. (Here, here, here, here, and here are a few.)

Von Ulmenstein raised the ire of the South African Butlers Association this last week, by naming and shaming a graduate of SABA on her Whale Cottage blog, who she had employed and dismissed four days later for a list of alleged infractions.

According to the post, the SABA graduate was employed at her Camps Bay guest house, which she operates from 57 Camps Bay Drive, Cape Town.

SABA countered with a now-popular blog post of their own, before Von Ulmenstein hit back, and a familiar mud-slinging match played out in the comments section of both websites, and various social media platforms.

This list of allegations from both parties and their supporters in the comments sections of the posts alone is staggering.

However, one comment under the SABA post alleged that Von Ulmenstein had not registered the Whale Cottage Camps Bay property for commercial use, and by implication had evaded otherwise-significant commercial rates and taxes.

Contacted for comment, Rema Van Niekerk, Executive Officer of the Cape office of Federated Hospitality Association Of South Africa (FEDHASA), said that guest houses must be registered as commercial properties with their respective municipalities, because they pay substantially more in rates and taxes than residential properties.

Lwazi Kunju of the Property Valuations office of the City Of Cape Town confirmed that any given property would be billed substantially higher for rates in the event that it was registered as a commercial property, and not a residential property.

Kunju confirmed that residential properties may enjoy a rates rebate for a variety of reasons that include but are not limited to the registered owner being a pensioner, or earning and income of less than R10 500 per month. Kunju went on to say that a commercial property may not receive a rates rebate, for any reason.

Under the value roll entry for 57 Camps Bay Drive, the Rating Category is marked as “Rebated”, and the property is listed as “RES”, or residential.

Kunju confirmed explicitly that 57 Camps Bay Drive is listed as a residential, and not a commercial property on the City’s property records.

Kunju also stated that the onus is on the property owner to inform the relavent municipality that a property is used for commercial purposes, including the operation of a guest house.

In the event that a property owner had failed to inform the municipality that the property was used for commercial purposes, Kunju said that the owner would be re-billed for outstanding rates and taxes, backdated to the period in which the property made the transition from residential to commercial use.

The Whale Cottage website confirms that Whale Cottage Camps Bay has been in use as a guest house since 1998.

Failure to pay the outstanding amount would lead to the City instituting standard debt collection processes.

2oceansvibe confirmed that the Hermanus and Franschhoek Whale Cottages are registered as businesses according to the property valuation rolls of the Overstrand and Stellenbosch municipalities, respectively.

After 2oceansvibe made contact with Von Ulmenstein via phone call, text message and email, she stated that she is unavailable for comment today. 2oceansvibe requested via telephone, text and email that Von Ulmenstein confirm or deny our research, and she declined to engage with the questions.