Latest bills horrify Auckland ratepayers
Single mum describes panic attack at council email detailing 30% rise
An Auckland single mum says she had a “panic attack” when opening her new council rates bill this month. Another ratepayer says she plans to leave the city because of its “poor” services.
Other ratepayers have described getting bills up to 30 per cent higher than last year as the city’s creaking infrastructure battles to keep up with new housing developments.
The single mum, who teaches at high school and holds down a second job after hours to make ends meet, told the Weekend Herald her bill had not only jumped about $200 a quarter, but she was also hit with two bills back-to-back totalling almost $1400.
“I had a panic attack looking at the email from Auckland Council,” she said. “I called them and cried, they put me through the credit control team and asked me to pay it monthly.”
Homeowners are also facing other cost of living pressures and interest rate rises.The council earlier estimated 373,555 city property owners face higher bills this coming year, while 138,275 will have cheaper bills.
Of those with higher bills, 139,359 will have rates charges rise by more than 10 per cent, the council said.
Bills for a further 234,196 people will rise by less than 10 per cent.
The overall rates increase across the city is 5.6 per cent, including a new targeted rate for climate action.
But the average household rates increase is 6.4 per cent due to a plan to gradually reduce business rates and make homeowners pay more.
Sandra Yeats, who lives in Huapai in Auckland’s northwest, said her bill had jumped about 16 per cent.
That was partly due to a shift from rural to urban zoning, she said.
With the new zoning, she had expected to see more investment in infrastructure to accommodate the new housing subdivisions, but no.
“This area was recently in the news because the roads are in such poor condition that locals are now working together to repair them.
“There has been no infrastructure investment or improvement, the traffic and road conditions are appalling. We pay for our own waste management, there are no real parks, the library is old [and] we still have to pay rural post.”
Yeats said she recently moved to Huapai from Cambridge in Waikato to be with her partner. The area was beautiful and the residents lovely, but she now planned to move out of Auckland within two years because of the traffic jams and dire infrastructure.
Just travelling 6-10km through Kumeu¯ to the start of the Northwestern Motorway could take 40 minutes outside of peak hours, she said.
Glenn Campbell from Half Moon Bay in Auckland’s east, meanwhile, said his rates had jumped 25 per cent since last year, rising from $895 per quarter to $1117.
While the extra charges were a hit to his pocket, the way his home was valued was the most perplexing.
He said his property had been valued at $1.6 million in 2017, comprising $1.3m for the land and $300,000 for his home.
But in the July 2021 valuation, his home had been rated as worth $2.1m, including $2m for the land and $100,000 for his house.
Nick Goodall of property analysts CoreLogic said that could be because of valuers changing the way they classified many of Auckland’s properties during the most recent valuation.
Some properties that had been classified as single-dwelling properties were now being reclassified according to the size of the their land.
Those with sections big enough to support the future development of townhouses and apartments were now often being valued much higher.
This had happened across much of South Auckland, which had become a hotspot for sales to developers during the recent house price boom.
Rhonwen Heath, Auckland Council’s head of rates valuations and data management, invited worried ratepayers to call the council to “talk through some options”. The first rates instalment is due on August 31.