Rate system for review

Press, 28 September 1984, Page 5

Rate system for review

Increases in Christchurch City property valuations has prompted the Christchurch City Council to review its rating system. The five-yearly Government valuation of properties in the city is under way. Some properties were being revalued at up to 130 per cent more than their previous valuations, said Cr Matthew Glubb, chairman of the council’s policy and finance committee. Some ratepayers were concerned that their rates would go up a comparative percentage, he said. “They should not in any

way assume that their rates next year will rise to the same extent,” he said. The City Council was required to use Government valuations when determining its rates but the council had not yet received the figures from the Valuation Department. Once those figures were received, probably by the end of the week, they had to be analysed and converted to the council’s computer system. It would be November before the council could issue a full statement, Cr Glubb said.

Because the valuation of properties had risen so much and because it did not appear to be uniform over the whole city, the council would consider alternatives for rating. “It would be prudent to do so,” Cr Glubb said. “We do not have to, but with the information we have we will be able to determine the best means of rating.” At present the council’s rating system was a “hotchpotch” of methods. Some properties were rated on land value, some on improvement value, some on a combination of both.

Where the council’s rating area bounded that of other authorities, similarly valued and adjacent properties were paying different rates. One example was Rossall Street, where the residents on the east side were in Waimairi District and those on the west side in Christchurch City. “Property owners there are paying different rates. Admittedly they are two different authorities, but the houses are in the same street. We have to try to keep the margins as small as possible," Cr Glubb said. If the total rate yield

from all properties was not altered the only effect of the valuation changes would be to alter the incidence of rating as between individual properties. It was a complex issue as about 54 per cent of rates related to land value and 46 per cent to capital value. This included ad hoc levies collected by the council. The council’s review would probably be a study of figures for properties rated on different systems. “We will see what people would have to pay on different systems and go from there,” Cr Glubb said.