Council rules out early revaluation

Council has ruled out an early revaluation of coastal properties that fall within the coastal erosion risk hazard areas.

The likelihood of a rate’s differential for affected properties is also unlikely.

Councillors were told this week that there are various trigger points for early revaluations but none qualify under existing circumstances.

Under the Rating Valuation Rules, a territorial authority can make alterations to the District Valuation Roll where there is a change in the provision of an operative district plan. Given Council is not proposing that the rules relating to the coastal hazard lines take immediate effect, a separate revaluation of properties affected by the coastal hazard lines will not be triggered.

The proposed District Plan change will be notified in late November. It will then be open for submissions with hearings taking place in mid 2013. As a result, the earliest possible date for the introduction of any separate rating differential will be 2014/15.

With the next three yearly revaluations of properties taking place in August 2014, the new valuations based on sales of coastal properties will take effect for the 2015/16 rating year.

Given this, councillors were told it would be difficult to justify a rating differential for coastal properties for just the one year (2014/15) when in the following year (2015/16), the new land and capital values would take effect and eliminate any justification for a differential.