Property owners in the Waitomo District will soon receive a 2015 Notice of Rating Valuation with an updated rating value for their property.   

A rating value reflects the likely price a property would sell for at the effective date, (not including chattels i.e. movable personal items such as curtains and appliances).  The effective date of the rating value means the date on which a home’s rating value was re-assessed.  The effective date for the Waitomo rating revaluation is 1 September 2015.

Any changes to council rates are not effective from this date however; new council rates taking into account the new rating values will be effective from 1 July 2016. 

Rating values are only one of a number of factors councils use to allocate rates.  Zoning and your council’s own funding requirements are also factors.

The new rating values have been prepared this year by Quotable Value (QV) on behalf of the Waitomo District Council. 

QV uses a mass-appraisal process to ascertain the new rating values. This involves taking relevant property sales in an area around the effective date (except mortgagee sales) and establishing a market trend which is then applied to similar properties in that area.

The mass-appraisal process is also supported by some valuation assessments of individual properties every year which are done as a result of building consents, subdivisions, sales inspections, objections and ratepayer requests to update rating values.

Following that, rating values are independently audited by the Office of the Valuer General. Rigorous quality standards need to be met before a rating revaluation is confirmed.

Stuart Robinson, Registered Valuer Rotorua, said; “In the Waitomo District, rating values are updated once every three years.”

 “Since the last revaluation in 2012, property values have fluctuated within a narrow band.  Values are at a similar level to where they were three years ago,” said Stuart Robinson, Registered Valuer.

A new rating value may show a change in value, but it doesn’t necessarily follow that future rates will proportionately change. When the council sets rates, a rating value is expressed as a percentage of the total value of all properties in an area. 

Your Notice of Rating Valuation with updated rating value will be posted to you in late October.  If you disagree with your rating value you can object. The objection close-off date is 4 December 2015. You can download an objection form from the Waitomo District Council website www.waitomo.govt.nz or call the friendly Customer Services Team at Waitomo District Council on 07 878 0800 to request an objection form or for more information.