ARREARS OF RATES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21297, 26 September 1932, Page 11

ARREARS OF RATES

AN ABANDONED PROPERTY MORTGAGOR NOT LIABLE Whether the rates were* recoverable in respect of a property which had been abandoned by a mortgagor to the State Advances Department though the name of tho mortgagor was still on the rate roll of the local rating authority, is a point of law that" was decided by Mr. \V. H. Woodward, S.M., in a reserved judgment given at Lower Hutt. The case arose when the Lower Hutt Borough Council sued a relief worker for rates amounting to £23 6s lOd. In his judgment, the magistrate said that section 63 of the Rating Act, 1925, provided that on the sale transfer or other disposition of ajiv lands, notice thereof must be given within one month in writing to the local authority. It was held that an abandonment, such as occurred in tho case in question, where the department had taken steps to determine the mortgagor's title, did not come within the meaning of the words "salo transfer or other disposition" iri the section, and therefore there was no liability on tho mortgagor to give the notice required by the section. Such being the case, although trie mortgagor was on the rate roll, he was not liable for the rates.