ASSESSMENT COURT

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 41, 17 August 1921, Page 6

ASSESSMENT COURT

FURTHER OBJECTIONS HEARD

TO CITY VALUATIONS.

The sittings of the Assessment Court were continued at the old Parliamentary Buildings this morning. Mr. V. G. Day, S.M., presided, and with him sat Messrs*' T. B. Dwan (City Council assessor) and Ewen Campbell (Government Assessor). Mr. F. E. Ward appeared for the Valuation Department.

Mr. G. G. G. Watson asked that a reduction be made in the valuation of the Brandon-street Chambers, Ltd. (Messrs. Chapman, Skerratt, Tripp, and Blair's buildings). The Court, he said, had fixed the valuation of the D.I.C. frontage in Brandon-street at £180 per foot, and he thought that his clients were entitled to a reduction on. that figure,. because their property was further away from' Lambton-quay than the D.I.C. property. The Court reduced the improved value., from £8010 to £7860, thus malting the capital .value £20,360. Objection was raised by Mr. Wateon to the valuation of £18,300 (£IO,BOO unimproved and £7500 improved) placed on Irvine and Stevenson's property in Brandon-street. The section measures 60ft by 85ft. Evidence was called by Mr. Watson to show that' the value of the property was reduced by reason of its being away from the retail area.

The unimproved value was reduced to £10,500, the reduction being £5 per foot. , .

"RAMSHACKLE OLD BUILDING."

. " The valuation of this ramshackle old building, 43 ■ years old, lias been increased 250 ..per-cent," 'remarked Mr. Watson in the-case in which J.. B. Mac--Kwan and- Co. protested against the fhlues placed; on their land and building in Featherston-street. Mr. Watson said that.the value cf Hie building had been increased from £1250 in 1914 to £3000. .The building was collapsing inwards, and it would have, to be pulled down as .valueless when the lease expired in about four years' time: An/adjoining modern brick-building had been.left, at practically the same valuation as ,was made in 19i4. The-land was valued by the Government at-£l7O ,per.foot; but counsel invited comparisons;with, sales of nearby properties at £164 and £175 per foot.

James Ames, City Valuer, said he could 1 not remember why he had increased the value of the building, but he thought something had been done to it. -The Court sustained the valuation of the land, but reduced the valuation of the building to £1500.'•

A CLUB,PROPERTY. 0 The Wellington Club trustees (repre-' sented by Mr.', Watson) appealed against the valuation placed on the club property at the comer of Featherstonand Waring-Taylor streets. Mr. Watson said the capital value was £21,170, •the value of the land, being £13,670. Tha Government valuation was £165 on file collier section and £150' on the inside section.

A. Gellatly, valuer, said; he valued the corner section at £140 per foot, and the inside section at £120. The Government valuation of the WeHesley Olub property, worked out atl £2 6s per square foot, and that of the Dominion Farmers' Institute, doss by, at £i 6s per square foot. The valuation of the Dominion Farmers'. Institute was approximately £16,000. #

C. J. S. Harcourt, valuer, supported Mr. Gellatly's evidence. The average va-lue p'oi- foot'was.'£l3o.' ' ;

Neither Messrs. Gellatly nor Harcourt could inform Mr. ,o'Sliea whether sales of land had. taken place in Fea-therston-street at* £130 per foot. The valuation was sustained. Messrs. Buddie and Anderson sought a reduction of the valuation of £150 per foot .placed on a section owned by them in Johnson-street. ■ . .

Mr. Watson stated that it was submitted that the valuation should be fixed a £130. per foot. The valuation %vas • based on the fact that city leasehold sections opposite had been on the market for a long time at £120 per foot, but had not been taken.

The Court sustained the valuation holding that it was consistent with those fixed in surrounding streets. J. B. Harcourt and Co., for whom Mr Watson appeared, protested against the valuation placed on the land and building occupied by^them at the corner of Lambton-quay and Panama-street. The capital value of £2,125 was made up of £13,000 unimproved, ancl £1825 improved. The valuation worked out at £300 per foot, which was considered to be too high compared with nearby properties. . ' .

The unimproved value was reduced toJ £12,500. •

(Propeeding.)