Auckland Council’s Finance and Performance Committee is to consider how rates are applied to religious-use properties at its meeting next week.
On Tuesday 20 November, the committee will be asked to agree to transitioning the rates increases for religious use properties by deferring the increases to 2019/2020.
This would be done by applying a grant to rates accounts for 2018/2019 that would hold rates at the 2017/2018 levels. All properties except those with a rates increase caused by commercial activity would be treated in this way.
The committee is also being asked to approve new rating approaches that would be applied to parts of the assessed properties that are not used for religious worship, religious education, or as a cemetery such as offices, cafés, op shops and libraries.
More information is available in the committee agenda here.
Non-rateable properties review
Between April 2016 and April 2018, Auckland Council’s rates team undertook a review of all non-rateable properties in Auckland.
This was done to ensure the council complied with legislation, because different legacy council areas in Auckland applied it differently.
“The review was about fairness and to ensure all properties across Auckland were being treated the same as per the legislation," says Debbie Acott, Auckland Council’s head of rates valuations and data management.
“We reviewed 10,500 non-rateable properties, and of these we discovered 950 were non-rateable because they were used for religious education and worship. There were 516 properties with no change to their rating, 20 made fully rateable and 392 had their rating adjusted.
“The review revealed examples of property being used as a business, for example, a car park being used for commercial purposes in the central city, and where an undertaker’s business was being operated from within the property,” says Ms Acott.
“It also found community halls and office areas that were liable for rates. The identification of these parts of the properties then required an assessment of what rates should be applied to these parts.”
When the review started, all ratepayers were contacted asking for details of the use of the property.
“Once the review was complete, we wrote to all ratepayers again advising of our findings and the expected changes to each property rates”, says Ms Acott. “At that stage ratepayers were also advised that they could object to the new rates information that we held.”
Some properties experienced large increases in rates or received rates notices for the first time.
Options to defer rates payments have been offered with no penalty incurred until the Finance and Performance Committee consider whether to lessen the impact of the increased rates for these properties.
