About 150 properties in Buller have been affected by a council error that wrongly classified them as multi-residential - and saw some facing potential rate increases of up to 300 percent.
Karl Bollinger at his residential property at Blacks Point.
Photo: LDR / Lois Williams
Reefton and Maruia residents raised the alarm last week after opening sample rates
assessments sent out by the Buller District Council to give people an idea of what they would pay under its proposed new rating system.
In the worst example, Blacks Point superannuitants Karl and Riki Bollinger found the rates for their rural riverbank property with only swingbridge access across the Inangahua River, would increase from $2000 to $6000.
Buller Mayor Jamie Cleine today reassured Reefton residents facing huge rate hikes that any errors in their estimated bills will be fixed.
Reefton.
Photo: Tourism West Coast
Worried Inangahua ratepayers who turned up to a meet-the-council session in Reefton this week produced official letters showing they would face rate rises of up to 200 percent under the council s proposed new rating formula.
Properties formerly zoned rural, made up of multiple small titles, had been classed as multi-residential in the new model, they told councillors. In most cases, this has been a mistake - we had a few of these crop up in Westport as well, Cleine said today.
Some property owners in Reefton are in for whopping rate increases of more than 200 percent if the Buller District Council adopts a proposed new rating formula.