VALUATION OF LAND

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 49, 27 February 1945, Page 7

VALUATION OF LAND

CONTENTIOUS LAW

The question of the repeal or amendment of section 3 of the Valuation of Land Amendment Act, 1933, which provides that any person may require the Valuer-General to make a new valuation of any land owned by that person and may object to such new valuation, was discussed by the Valuer-General, (Mr. F. H. Waters) in evidence given to the Parliamentary Committee on Local Government yesterday afternono. After a district had been revised and all objections in connection therewith had been disposed of by the Assessment Court, said Mr. "Waters, it was reasonable to assume that a district valuation roll should then form a sound and uniform basis for rating and taxation until the next revision took place. In practice it was found impossible to maintain that degree of uniformity for any lengthy period on account of applications made under section 3, when reductions were frequently granted, causing inequalities in the valuation roll, particularly where rating was on the unimproved value. CORRECTING ANOMALIES. While it was desirous that the section should be retained in order that a property owner should not be deprived of his right to have an anomaly in his valuation corrected, such objection to the new valuation might very well be limited to the question of unfairness of the new valuation in comparison with other valuations in the district; otherwise to throw the onus on the objector to prove that his valuation was out of line with the existing roll values of other similar properties.

There had been considerable pressure by local authorities for the total repeal of that section, and at the recent Municipal Conference the matter was the subject of a remit.

Under the annual value rating system a property owner had no right to call for a new valuation between one revision and the next. The Rating Act provided that where the system of rating on the annual value was in force, a valuation roll should be made, either annually or triennially, at the option of the local authority. Under the Valuation of Land Act no such statutory time was denned at which revaluations should be carried out, and frequently long periods elapsed, and that provided ground for criticism by local authorities and others of the unimproved and capital value rating systems.

The amount of work the Department could undertake in any year was limited to its vote, which was always the subject of close scrutiny, but providing sufficient funds were made available more frequent revisions could be made. It would be to the advantage of the unimproved and capital value rating systems if a statutory period for revisions was denned.