Revaluations

Last week a number of property owners in the Te Atatu Rd corridor received Revaluation Notices superseding previous Valuation Notices.
We were given until 12 January 2016 to object.
At first glance there seems little change but the feedback I’ve had from affected ratepayers, to date, is that despite land being acquired by the Council for road widening, under the Public Works Act, the original valuation is the same as the new one with the value for the residual land being the same as the value for the total land before the loss of the portion acquired by Council.
To illustrate by way of example
Property X
LV 1/7/14 $400,000
IV 1/7/14 $300,000
CV 1/7/14 $700,000
Land Area 800 m2
New Valuation (backdated to be effective from 1/7/14)
LV $400,000
IV $300,000
CV $700,000
Lan d Area 750m2
With 50m2 of land now belonging to Council, the property owner has lost 6.25% of his/her land. One would expect a rates decrease, but by backdating the new valuations to be effective from 1/7/14 the Council will get the same rates revenue as it did before acquiring its portion, even though the property owner now has less usage. Effectively, Council’s back-dated land valuation of 50m2 is $0 as at 1/7/14. That’s a rort!
To add insult to injury ratepayers wishing to do so are required to object to the new valuation by 12 January 2016. Yet if a ratepayer requests information from Council they will be told 25 December 2015 until 15 January 2016 do not count as working days.
The double standards abound!

Advertisement