End of quake discount may see rates double

A likely end to Christchurch’s postearthquake rates discount scheme this year would see some homeowners’ rates jump by more than 50 per cent.

Nearly 500 people whose homes were left uninhabitable by damage or risk of flooding, land movement or rockfall after the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes have benefited from the Christchurch City Council’s rates remissions.

The scheme has been extended each year, but will finish on June 30 unless extended by council.

In the current financial year, it has cost ratepayers $553,000.

The council’s draft annual plan for 2017 to 2018 claims the need for most of the discounts has gone.

The draft, released yesterday, will will be discussed by council on Tuesday and the plan finalised in June after public consultation.

For most of the 452 affected ratepayers, factoring earthquake damage into the latest rating valuations had ‘‘arguably’’ removed the need for remissions, the draft states.

The previous rating valuation round in 2013 had not considered it.

The average rates increase for the 358 owners whose values had dropped, compared with remitted rates, would be 51 per cent, or $450 a year.

‘‘Although this rates increase is high, it reflects the unusually low amounts charged under the current remission,’’ the plan says. ‘‘It is difficult to construct an ongoing remission that would remain equitable to other ratepayers.’’

Other owners had experienced an increase or no change in rating values, ‘‘suggesting these properties are no longer sufficiently damaged to be uninhabitable’’.