Red sticker rates remission

General views of Piha on Auckland/Tamaki Makaurau's west coast as the road is re-opened allowing access for the first time since the January flooding and Cyclones. Slips and aftermath of the storms. Red sticker on a beachfront property. NZ Herald Photo by Alex Burton 05 May 2023

Chief  financial officer says houses are being looked at on a case-by-case basis

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Rates are being remitted on red-stickered houses, Gisborne District Council chief executive Nedine Thatcher Swann has confirmed.

She was speaking yesterday at a full council meeting during a debate on rates, when the fears of owners of red-stickered homes were expressed.

Cr Andy Cranston said he had met several people who were in a “stickered situation”.

They were people with properties about to fall down hills.

“Their future is a skip bin — that’s absolutely their future and there’s no way around it.”

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Those property owners wanted to know about their rates and had been told about hardship grants.

Cr Cranston said he had checked about hardship grants online.

It appeared to be an “onerous process” for someone now renting a property for $800 a week and who was paying a mortgage at the same time.

Those property owners were not receiving council services.

“They’ve got no future.

“I think our situation should be that the day their property is red-stickered, their rates are stopped.”

Cr Cranston said there did not need to be a process and the council did not need hardship applications.

Ms Thatcher Swann said she did not know where the advice about hardship applications came from, but the council was remitting rates.

Council staff would offer further advice to councillors at another meeting.

Cr Cranston said information about hardship applications came from a public meeting.

Chief financial officer Pauline Foreman said rates for red-stickered houses had been remitted for the last two quarters.

There were long-term ramifications the council would need to consider.

Homes would be looked at on a case-by-case basis including issues such as council’s contribution (along with central government) in buying red-stickered houses.

Cr Tony Robinson said it was a difficult process.

If properties were bought out and council paid 50 percent, the property owner would receive a significant payout.

At that point Mayor Rehette Stoltz interrupted to take the debate back to the original subject of rates.

Staff would report back to council about red-stickered houses, and it was now known that the owners of such house would automatically have their rates remitted, she said.

Councillors passed their setting of rates, due dates and penalties with little debate.

But council needed to pass their 2023-2024 Annual Plan before doing so.

The rates requirement for the year is $86.6m (including GST).

The financial statement for the long-term plan of 2021-2031 proposes overall rates increase of 6.5 percent for years one to three, and the rates increase for 2023-2024 is within those financial parameters.

Rates invoices will be sent out in July 2023, October 2023, January 2024 and April 2024.