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How are the rates set?

All rates are assessed to fund services defined in the Far North Future Plan (Long Term Council Community Plan) or the Annual Plan.

Far North District Council's Far North Future Plan and Annual Plan sets out the proposed budgets for the forthcoming year/s. The first Far North Future Plan was issued in 2004 and is generally produced once every three years. In the intervening years Council is required to issue annual plans.

These plans are released for public comment in the early part of the calendar year and there is a month in which people can lodge submissions.

In late April, the Council meets to consider the submissions and at the end of this process, the council adopts the Plan together with any amendments that have come out of the submission process.

One of the new requirements of the Local Government Act 2002 is that the plan has to set out in detail the rates that Council proposes to set to cover the budgets set out in the plan. It also contains examples of how the proposed rates impact different property types over the different parts of the district.

• It should be noted that there is no longer any separate advertising of the rates.
• Approximately 75% of Council’s operating expenditure is funded from rates.

The new rates are effective from 1 July (this period coincides with the Council’s financial year which runs from 1 July to 30 June).

For explanations of different rate charges, click here.

My last payment does not show on my new rates notice

If your payment was made in the 10 days before the invoice was posted this payment would not be included on the invoice.

If you have made a payment but the payment is not showing on your most recent rates invoice, you need to do the following;

• If you have paid by cheque, call your bank or check your bank statement to find out whether your cheque has been presented (the amount left your bank account and not been returned), then call council - 0800 920 029.
• If you have paid by any other method (Internet banking, Automatic payment etc) and the amount has left your bank account ( and not been returned to your bank account) call council - 0800 920 029

If council receives a payment into our bank account without a reference number, the payment will be held in our suspense account until such time we receive information of where to allocate the payment.

I didn't receive my rates notice

Please ensure that we have your correct mailing address at all times. Some other reasons why you may not have received a rates notice could be the following:

• If you have recently moved addresses our rates invoices may have already been sent out prior to your notification of change of address. Please request another copy by sent to your new address.
• If council has your correct mailing address and you haven't received your rates notice please request another copy be sent. You may also need to follow up with NZ Post.

Where can I pay my rates?

(A & B Plates) - How are the rates split and why?

A & B Plates are generated by Quotable Values for various reasons. The main reasons are where a property is split for rating purposes due to:

• Use of Land  - if your land has multiple uses e.g. Commercial, and Private, e.g. Hotel on residential property (this part becomes commercial) the rest general.
• Conservation Rates Postponement on part of the land.
• Flats Plans e.g. when a leasehold property is created and there is a surveyed plan for the building on part of that property - each flat gets its own CT.
• Unit Titles fall into this splitting category.
• Maori Freehold Land e.g where separate divisions have been set up for rating purposes

These are the main reasons but there are other exceptions for more information contact council.

What are non-rateable properties?

There are a number of properties types or uses that have been defined as 100% non-rateable by Legislation; these include such things as churches, schools, reserves etc. Other types of land uses such as land used by sports or arts organisations are 50% non-rateable.

Non rateable properties, still pay rates charges for some services such as water, sewage disposal (on availability), and where applicable sewerage debt service charges.

Request for rates notice to be forwarded to tenant of commercial property

Owners of leased commercial properties sometimes request that all rates notices are forwarded to the tenant's mailing address (instead of being sent to the owner). This can no longer be done.

The Legislation now requires that the rate accounts be sent to the owner except in some very specific cases such as where there is a lease for at least ten years and the lease sets out that the lessee is the ratepayer.

If we do not send the rate accounts to the owner, we cannot hold the owner accountable for the debt. The tenant has no liability to pay rates.

It should be noted that this also applies to water meter accounts.

Request for penalties on rates account to be remitted

If you have received penalties on your rate account and had a legitimate reason for the payment being late, you can request for the penalties to be remitted by writing to council wither by email or standard post.

If you have received penalties and yo believe that you made your payment on time, please call us to discuss further - your payment may be sitting in a suspense account ( if it was deposited with no reference number)

Transfers between accounts

You can only transfer funds from one account to another if there is a credit balance present at the time of the transfer (i.e. if your Rates account is in credit and you have a debt outstanding on your water account you can request that council transfer the funds from your rate account to you water account).

To request a transfer of funds between you account, you can call us on 0800 920 029 or write to us by email or standard post.

Refunds of credit balances on land or water rate accounts

A refund of rates can only occur in respect of credit balances held in a rate account that are in excess of the rates assessed for the current year. This means that your account must be in credit past 30 June to qualify for a refund. Where the credit balance is equal to or less than the future instalments for the current year, a refund will not be granted.

Refunds may be made for the following situations:

• If the rate account is paid in full for the year and there is a credit balance present.
• If there has been a change of property ownership ( applications must be made in writing by solicitors).
• If there is a credit balance at the end of the year caused by corrections to the rateable values or as a result of objections to rateable values or other changes to rates levied.

Note: Refunds are only processed once a week. Refunds are made at the discretion of the Rates Department and not all requests for refunds are automatically accepted. For further assistance or for enquiries where requests for refund are outside the above criteria - please contact council on 0800 920 029

Change of Name or Change of Address

If you have recently sold a property in the Far North District and you are still receiving the rates invoices for that property, it means that council hasn't received the Notice of Sale from you Solicitor. Please contact your solicitor as soon as possible and have them send us the Notice of Sale so that we may update our records. 

If you have recently bought a property in the Far North and you haven't received a rates invoice, it might mean that we either haven't received  a Notice of Sale for the property or the wrong mailing address was provided on the Notice of Sale.

To check if a Notice of Sale has been sent or if council has the correct mailing address please contact the Rates department on 0800 920 029 or you can write to us by email or standard post.

Rates notices for recently apportioned properties

Council does not apportion rates between parties when only part of a property is sold. The issue of payment should be addressed by the parties at time of settlement.

If you have any further queries, please contact your solicitor.

Information of Rates relief

Council has a number of policies which provide rating relief. For more information

Far North Future Plan 2006/2016 Vol.4

How to object to Valuations

Quotable Valuations New Zealand are the Far North Districts Valuation providers. You must contact them directly if you have any problems with your valuation.