COLLECTING RATE ARREARS

Taranaki Daily News, 18 July 1933, Page 2

COLLECTING RATE ARREARS

SELDOM-EXERCISED POWER. In order to expedite the collection of outstanding rates the Wellington city rates department is taking a course—authorised by the Rating Act—which has seldom been resorted to in the past. It is demanding payment of overdue rates from mortgagees, exercising a power which is not very widely known and may cause surprise to many holding mortgages over residential and other properties. Section 70 of the Rating Act says: “Any rate or part thereof due by the occupier may also, at the option of the local authority or of any person authorised to collect rates. . . be recovered from the owner or from any person owning an interest, including the interest as first mortgagee.” In the case of private mortgagees the whole of the' amount due is recoverable, but where the State Advances Department or other Government department is the first mortgagee it only pays the special rate and charge for water—not th© amount set down for general rate. If the department concerned has leased the premises to a new tenant then the,whole of the rate is recoverable. While the 10 per cent, penalty on overdue rates has been in operation for some time, a mortgagee raises an interesting point in regard to the collection of this from mortgagees. “The penalty operates six months and a certain number of days after the demand has 'been made,” he says. “As mortgagees are only now being called upon to pay, does the time limit apply from the time the rates were demanded from them, or is the original demand on the owner-occupier deemed to cover the owner or mortgagee?”

Applications are made to the city council periodically for the remission of rates in cases of hardship, but the conditions under which rates may be remitted are definitely laid down in the Act, no discretion 'being allowed.