Our new rates assessment notice from the Council was a surprise. Our rate increase was 10.2% and exceeded the IPART (Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal) approved limit of 8.4%. I received a letter of explanation from Lee Howard which you can read by clicking on the document link at the bottom of this article.
I responded by email to Lee with the following more specific question:
Our rates have gone up by 10.2% which is more than the % allowable under IPART. However, our property value has declined by a full 18.3%. Am I correct in assuming therefore that our land value reduction of 18.3% is in fact a relatively small reduction and much smaller than the average reduction in land values for the other properties in the Lower Coastal Area? This is surely the only reason why our rates have gone up more than the 8.2% overall.
Lee's response was:
Your are correct the amount of change in your value compared to other properties is the direct reason for any increase in rates.
In relation to the change in land values below is a breakup which may assist you. As you can see 2,046 (properties) had a decrease in value greater than 20%.
|
Lower Coastal breakup |
|
||
|
decrease > 40% |
22 |
||
|
decrease 30-40% |
306 |
||
|
decrease 20-30% |
1718 |
||
|
decrease 10-20% |
971 |
||
|
decrease 0-10% |
323 |
||
|
increase |
67 |
||
|
|
|||
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Town by town |
|||
|
|
2008 total land value |
2011 total land value |
% change |
|
HAWKS NEST |
366,154,000 |
282,230,650 |
-22.92% |
|
TEA GARDENS |
340,157,426 |
264,199,460 |
-22.33% |
|
NORTH ARM COVE |
132,018,400 |
110,136,200 |
-16.58% |
|
PINDIMAR |
64,300,200 |
53,560,100 |
-16.70% |
|
SEAL ROCKS |
71,941,000 |
55,347,000 |
-23.07% |
|
Total Lower Coastal |
$ 974,571,026.00 |
$ 765,473,410.00 |
-21.46% |
As you can see overall values in North Arm Cove decreased less than other towns subject to the Lower Coastal Rate this is different to previous revaluations. We receive new values every 3 years and this causes a redistribution in rates, in the prior revaluation values in North Arm Cove values decreased over 8%, Hawks Nest decreased more than 4% and other towns in the Lower Coastal rate increased.
There is another issue here. There are properties in NAC that are almost next to each other and on the same side of the same street which have been assessed quite differently in terms of % change in land value. I asked the Dept of Lands to explain this a while ago. So far no reply, but I will put up their response if and when I get one!
Tony Hann
