Trial planned for yearly land revaluations

Press, 26 May 1984, Page 7

Trial planned for yearly land revaluations

Seven local authorities throughout New Zealand will be revalued on a yearly basis over the next two years. The authorities — Cheviot County, Temuka Borough. Balclutha Borough, Clifton County (near Wanganui), Kairanga County (Northland), Dannevirke Borough, Morrinsville Borough and Papakaura County — will be part of an experiment into annual county revaluations. They were all revalued last year. The district valuer in charge of North Canterbury. Mr Ross Calderwood, said that in recent years there had been criticism from some local authorities that during periods of inflation valuations rapidly went out of date. The experiment was to see whether it was feasible to do annual revaluations, said Mr Calderwood. "It will involve the

physical inspection of about one-fifth of the properties in each local authority. The rest will be adjusted’on the sales information and any up to date information regarding farm development, building permits and improvements.” he said. A computer would adjust the market fluctuations at the time. All property owners and occupiers would be told of the valuation and have the usual right of

objection. The exercise was the same as that carried out for the five-year revaluation. Mr Calderwood said. The experiment was designed to see if it was feasiable with existing staff, so no extra staff would be used. "We may have to overlap some of the work where possible,” he said. Mr Calderwood said that it would be up to each local authority whether they used

the new valuations for rate assessment. Annual valuations were a subject that had been mooted for some time. Mr Calderwood said computers would now’ make the task easier. The Cheviot County Council has asked Valuation Department officers to its next meeting to discuss the proposal, which it feels might mean extra clerical work for council staff.