Law allows overseas firm to set values

By Scott MacLeod

HAMILTON - Thousands of Waikato landowners face having an overseas company work out their property values - and therefore their rates.

A new law has allowed five Waikato councils to be the first to choose an overseas company to work out their values, raising concerns about job security at the state-run Quotable Value New Zealand.

The district councils - Matamata Piako, Franklin, Hauraki, Thames Coromandel and Waikato - yesterday assured their ratepayers that they would notice little change.

They said the Australian firm Colin A. Porter had offered a better deal than Quotable Value, and their councils would save big money on valuations.

Hauraki District Council's corporate services manager, Rex Leonhart, said Porter would have to follow the same process in working out valuations as had Quotable Value.

The firm would employ local people to work out the values.

Mr Leonhart said Porter would follow rules set by the Valuer-General, which should result in very similar values for properties. Porter had offered a tender of $190,000 plus some small charges, compared with a total of $420,000 the council had to pay in the past.

One woman who works for Quotable Value said she believed job losses were inevitable now councils were going to competitors. Asked whether Quotable Value could still compete, she said: "We're a Government department. What do you think?"

Philip Western, general manager operations of Quotable Value, could not guarantee jobs were safe.

"We are continually reassessing how to provide better service to our customers," he said.

"We are weighing things up at the moment."

Mr Western said Quotable Value was trying to compete by offering better long-term service. To his knowledge, there were no plans to sell or privatise Quotable Value.

Quotable Value lost its monopoly on July 1 last year, when the Rating Valuation Act said councils could begin choosing their valuers.

All councils will choose within two years.

Of 13 eligible this year, the Waikato five have gone to Porter, three have gone to Quotable Value, and the Western Bay of Plenty District Council has chosen the local Beca Carter firm. Four are yet to be announced.

All councils use property values to set rates. Some also include the value of improvements, such as houses, in striking rates.

Waikato District Council's support services manager, Lyn Janssen, said using the overseas firm would have a much smaller impact on land values than would changes in the local property market.