Frequently asked questions
Frequently asked questions
What if I don’t use some of these services or facilities?
Why is my rates increase higher than 4.8%?
What do our rates which go to Greater Wellington Regional Council pay for?
How can I find out what my property valuation is?
Rates help to pay for the costs of services and facilities provided to the Kāpiti community. For example:
Street lighting, waste water, storm water, solid waste, coastal management, roading, libraries, swimming pools, community halls, sports halls, cemeteries, public toilets, social housing, works depots, emergency operations centre, parks and open spaces, cycleways, walkways and bridleways, planning and development, dog registration, noise complaints and projects including the Paekakariki sea wall, Mahara Gallery and Waikanae library, Paraparaumu and Waikanae town centre and earthquake prone building assessments.
What if I don’t use some of these services or facilities?
Rates pay for services and facilities that are either critical (i.e. wastewater management) or deemed beneficial to the community as a whole – often the things that make our district a more desirable place to live. We recognise not everyone will use every service or facility on offer, and where possible we look at other forms of revenue such as development contributions and ‘user pays’ – e.g. subsidised swimming pool entry fees.
In 2019/20, we have set the average rates increase at 4.8%. This is the lowest increase possible to achieve the balance of completing our agreed work programme and funding inflation, interest and increasing insurance costs along with funding the future replacement of our assets through depreciation. This makes up the huge majority of the increase.
The costs of Insurance and depreciation alone were 3.3%.
Why is my rates increase higher than 4.8%?
Rate assessments for individual properties are driven by their land and capital value. Approximately 52% of rates are allocated on property value. This means higher valued properties will have higher rates.
While we have the fourth lowest total operating spending per ratepayer out of 67 councils, a high proportion of our costs is funded by rates.
We rely principally on rates to fund our services and maintain those services, and to cover the costs of inflation. Some of our costs – including the cost of infrastructure such as roads – are going up faster than household inflation.
What do our rates which go to Greater Wellington Regional Council pay for?
In general these rates fund: public transport – trains and buses, river management and flood protection, possum and predator control, emergency management, environmental education and sustainability, land management, regional parks and forests.
We are aware some of our community has financial constraints. We have a rates remission policy for those whose rates exceed 5% of their household income. Applications can be made to Council from January each year. Additionally, there is also a government rates rebate scheme for low income home owners.
Homeowners facing extreme hardship may get a reduction in their rates, or we can look at postponing payments. More information on rates remissions.
How can I find out what my property valuation is?
You can find out what your property valuation is or we can confirm the new valuation amount over the phone.
Alternatively, you can go to Quotable Value and order a copy of a valuation for your property. Please note, Quotable Value charges a cost for this.
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