Rating changes introduced by the Waitomo District Council six years ago are to be reversed because of demand for rural land.
Waitomo District councillors were told the Office of the Valuer General would be taking a special interest in farming properties on the outskirts of townships that have smaller titles. Photo: RNZ/ Sally Murphy
Councillors were told at last week's audit, risk and finance committee meeting that the Office of the Valuer General (OVG) would be taking a special interest in farming properties on the outskirts of townships that had smaller titles.
Because of demand for residential land, the OVG said the smaller titles should constitute separate rating units - which may reverse some property amalgamations the OVG required as part of the 2015 revaluation.
In 2015, smaller titles used as part of a single farming unit were amalgamated to reflect the one farming unit.
Quotable Value (QV) staff will be reviewing the district valuation roll for any properties that need to be subdivided as a result of the change in approach.
Waitomo District Council business support general manager Alister Duncan said council staff did not expect a large number of properties would need to be subdivided as the district's townships were not currently experiencing significant growth.
It will be an issue for districts with significant growth, he said.
"Is this Quotable Value taking a property and saying they are going to revalue as three," Waitomo Mayor John Robertson asked.
Duncan replied the direction had come from the OVG.
"Three or six years ago, the OVG came through and said where three or four separate titles were being used as one unit then they should be combining them and having one rating.
"Now they're saying properties bordering towns where there is development, then possibly they should be having them as single titles. A ratepayer could end up with four rateable titles where at the moment there is one.
"The end result is exactly the same. There was significant work required to amalgamate them, now there could be quite a bit of work to de-amalgamate them."
He didn't expect there to be a "huge" amount of properties involved across the district, but there could be a block of work.
He was unable to answer deputy mayor Guy Whitaker's question about how far from the town the outskirts would be. There had been no notification.
"When you say they are boundary, do they need to be on the boundary or how far," Whitaker asked.
"Somebody with three titles who has been getting one rates bill will now receive three rates bills," Duncan said.
The rating revaluation is required every three years. The last one was September 2018, and the next one is due 21 September.
"The preliminary work this year is about a month late because of deferrals for Auckland and Queenstown, which sought delays because of Covid-19. Auckland has close to 600,000 reassessments which will require all OVG resources to complete," Duncan said.
Waitomo District Council staff sent out 624 rental and production surveys during April with completed surveys to be returned by 28 May. Surveys were sent to a selection of rural, commercial and industrial property ratepayers to ensure that the revaluation program is undertaken as accurately as possible. Surveys may be completed online at survey.ratingvalues.co.nz, emailed or returned by post.
The majority of the valuation fieldwork relating to the general valuation would be undertaken between July and September 2021 by QV, Duncan said.
The key highlights of the 2021 General Revaluation will be presented to council by QV staff before the valuation notices were sent to the ratepayers.
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