NEWMARKET VALUATIONS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21480, 2 May 1933, Page 12

NEWMARKET VALUATIONS

CASES FOR REDUCTIONS LOWER RENTALS PLEADED PRINCIPLES OF ASSESSMENT " Rentals received may act as a guide to assessing rateable values, but I am not bound to reduce valuations to a basis of those figures," said Mr W. R. McKcan, S.M., yesterday, when presiding at a sitting of the Newmarket Assessment Court. " My task is not to ascertain the actual value of properties, but to fix a value for rating purposes which is fair in relation to other properties .in tho borough. In most cases I shall have to take the existing Government valuation as a basis." Low rents were quoted for a block of shops on tho corner of Broadway and Remuera Road. Application for a reduction in rateable value was made by Albert Beazley, who was represented by Mr. Duthie. The total annual rating valuation for tho shops was £1155, and counsel stated that if the shops were let all tho year round at tho best rents thoy had brought during tho past year, the estate would secure only £504 in rents. " We have to base our rating values on 5 per cent of the capital value, and the Government valuation for tho land alono is £18,000," said Mr. H. Wilson, town clerk and valuer for the borough of Newmarket. Rental of Shops Mr. Duthie: But the Government has reduced the upset rental of the land, which belongs to the Railway Department, from £975 to £475, and allowed the reduction to date back to the beginning of the lease. Mr. Duthie quoted the rents received from individual shops. Several shops valued at £llO were rented " off and on" at £1 a week maximum rent. Another shop, valued at £175, was let for 44 weeks at £2 a week, but recently had to be let at 35s a week. In reply to Mr. Duthie, Mr. Wilson said he would not like to give a valuation of the land on which the property was built, " The unimproved value of land is on shifting sands to-day," he said. "As far as we are concerned, until there is a general revaluation throughout the Auckland district, we cannot possibly agree to a general reduction to what are called 'presentday' values. The council is assessed for. hospital and other rates at the Government valuation, and we think that that must be taken as a fair basis." Mr. Duthie staled that the owners had not known of the Government, valuation, and if they had, they would have applied for a reduction. Mr. McKean ordered a reduction of one-third, making the total annual valuation for the shops £770. A similar reduction was made in the valuations of the upper storey of the building, separately let, and formerly valued at £345. Proportion for Furniture The question of what proportion of the rent was assessable on the furniture was tho chief point in an application in respect of a block of furnished fiats in Huntly Avenue, valued at £2OO a year. The owner gave evidence that there were four flats, rented at an average of 32s 6d a week. Of that sum, he considered 10s represented the rent for the furniture. It would cost at least £250 to refurnish tho flats. " At 10s you would have repaid for your furniture in two and a-half years," said Mr. McKean, in assessing the furniture rent at 7s 6d a week. The valuation was reduced to £IBB. The present valuations were sustained in the case in which J. Owen and A. Osborne Shipherd applied for reductions in the valuations of shops at 135, 137, 147, and 149 Broadway. Mr. McKean expressed the opinion that the council's valuations were in accord with the Government capital valuations —£8000 for the first pair of shops, and £5805 for the second pair. The rentals received did not justify any reduction in the annual rating value. In a long list of smaller properties in the same estate, however, reductions ranging up to 45 per cent were made. Most of the cases sot down for hearing were struck out owing to the nonappearance of the objectors. The total reductions made by the Court were £790. Prior to the sitting of the Court, adjustments totalling £2226 were made and properties-of a total annual rating value of £698, reverting to the Crown, became nonrateable. Out of the total annual rating value of the borough of £89,667, the reductions formed 3.25 per cent.