It notes that property owners usually get anxious once the revaluations are released
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The Horowhenua District Council has released the latest rateable valuations for the properties in the district, which are meant to help it set the values on which rates are based for the following three years.
Doug Law, chief financial officer of the Horowhenua District Council, said property owners usually get anxious once the revaluations become available as they fear rate increases. However, that’s simply not the case.
“People often think that an increase or decrease in valuation will automatically result in an increase or decrease in rates. Many people also think that an increase in the district’s values will mean that the Council gets more money. These are misconceptions,” Law clarified, as reported by Fuseworks Media.
“How it works is that Council decides through its planning processes how much money it needs to undertake the projects, services and other activities that it will provide for the next 12 months. Having worked out that total, it then calculates the proposed rates by dividing the district’s Land Value into the total dollars that it needs.”
Read more: Seaside property benefits the most from New Plymouth valuations
Law assured property owners that a property’s rateable value will not change for the next three years even if the market value changes during that period.
“The rating valuation provides the means to share the cost of the rates across the district according to a set of property values that are provided for every property on a common date, 1 August 2019. This means that every property is valued on the same basis and at the same time,” he said.
He added that property owners can formally object if they’re not satisfied with their valuation.
"The reassessment is a desk based assessment, so if owners have made improvements to their property that haven’t required a consent then it may not necessarily have been picked up" Law said.
