Rates bill decades in making
‘‘We’re thinking about down-sizing because it’s obliging us to do so.’’
A granny flat that has been on a Whitby property for 37 years has been included in the property’s rates bill for the first time - increasing a pensioner’s rates bill by 32 per cent.
Clive Morris, 79, who built the small flat attached to his home originally for his ill mum, was shocked to see the ‘‘mountainous obscene boil’’ of a rates rise which accounted for the flat for the first time.
Morris lives with his 64-year- old partner while charging a ‘‘peppercorn rent’’ to an elderly woman who occupies the attached 40-square-metre flat previously lived in by his mum who has since died.
He said a ‘‘letter from hell’’ informing him his bill had risen from $4462 to $5910 could see them sell the home that his father built before Whitby even existed at what was then Hutt County in 1953.
But, despite the incorporated studio sharing water and sewage services with the rest of the prop- erty, the council says Morris would have been paying more sooner if it had been aware.
About 3500 Porirua ratepayers saw increases of more than 10 per cent this year – against an average residential increase of 6.4 per cent – as the result of an average upswing in property revaluations of 24 per cent.
Excluding the second residence, Morris’ would have gone up 4.5 per cent. ’’We’re thinking about down-sizing because it’s obliging us to do so.’’
The bill had not increased earlier because of the family’s ‘‘peculiar circumstances’’.
The elderly woman living there now had deteriorating health and little money.
Neither Morris or his partner were much of a burden on council infrastructure.
‘‘It is a question of circumstances which nobody has bothered to inquire about before fixing this noose.’’
Porirua City Council chief financial officer Roy Baker said the property revaluations by Quotable Value last year found there were two dwellings.
‘‘There are two separate residences - two separately used or inhabited parts of the property. One is occupied by the owner and the second is a one-bedroom flat with its own kitchen, bathroom and entrance.’’