Rates bill four decades in the making

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 partner, 64, while charging a ‘‘peppercorn rent’’ to an elderly woman, who occupies the attached 40-squaremetre flat. It was previously lived in by his mum who has since died.

He said a ‘‘letter from hell’’, informing him his annual rates bill had risen from $4462 to $5910, could see them sell the home that his father built in 1953 – before Whitby even existed at what was then-Hutt County.

But, despite the incorporated studio sharing water and sewage services with the rest of the property, Porirua City Council said Morris would have been paying more sooner if it had been aware of the second residence.

About 3500 Porirua ratepayers saw increases of more than 10 per cent this year – against an average residential rise of 6.4 per cent – as the result of an average upswing in property valuations of 24 per cent.

Excluding the second residence, Morris rates would have gone up 4.5 per cent.

Morris emphasised all of the occupants were on limited incomes, ‘‘we’re just relying on what little savings we have’’.

‘‘We’re thinking about downsizing because it’s obliging us to do so.’’

The bill had not increased earlier because of the family’s ‘‘peculiar circumstances’’.

Morris created an unofficial letterbox for the flat to avoid mixing up mail, milk and courier deliveries.

The elderly woman living there now had deteriorating health and little money so would struggle in the regular market.

‘‘She loves the place and wants to stay there until they take her out in a box.’’

Neither Morris nor his partner were much of a burden on council infrastructure because, basically, ‘‘we’re two little people wobbling around in this reasonably large house’’.

‘‘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 at the site so this year’s rates had been set according to its new valuation.

‘‘While the two separate residences have only been notified to the council recently, if this information had been advised to the council in earlier years, the rates would have reflected this in previous years.’’

‘‘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.’’

"It is a question of circumstances, which nobody has bothered to inquire about before fixing this noose." Ratepayer Clive Morris on his increased rates bill from Porirua City Council.