Council cheated ratepayers, lawyer tells court

Bruce Rogan

The Kaipara District Council "cheated" its ratepayers by going to Parliament and getting a retrospective legislation that validates irregularities in the setting and assessing of rates for a controversial wastewater scheme, a lawyer has told a Whangarei court.

Jeremy Brown, acting for Mangawhai ratepayer Bruce Rogan and his wife Heather, said defects in the rates assessment notice sent by the council to his clients rendered the document invalid.

The Rogans are defending proceedings brought by the council against them to recover rates arrears. The council is seeking $14,946 from the couple for their Mangawhai Heads' property. They are among about 100 defaulting ratepayers who owe nearly $1 million in rates and penalties from 2012 in protest against Parliament passing the Kaipara Validation Act. The act validated irregularities in the setting and assessing of Kaipara district rates from the 2006/07 financial year to 2011/12 in respect of the Mangawhai wastewater scheme.

In his closing submission yesterday, Mr Brown said it was highly inaccurate for the council to describe the outcome of an earlier judicial review by the Mangawhai Ratepayers and Residents' Association in the High Court as a "loss".

He said the KDC and Northland Regional Council issued documents to the Rogans by way of rate arrears that did not comply with the Local Government Rating Act. Mr Brown said the onus was on both councils to prove documents they issued complied with the relevant laws which triggered the Rogans' obligation to pay. He said those forms, rather than the law in respect of the councils' powers to levy and collect rates, were being questioned.

The KDC is arguing that since the High Court had earlier ruled rates were validated for all purposes, they must be paid. It said rates were valid unless they were deemed invalid by a court of competence. But Mr Brown said rates notices must clearly comply with certain mandatory rules.

"The Kaipara District Council cheated in that it went to Parliament, got a retrospective legislation so Justice Heath could not grant all the declarations sought," he said. Judge Keith de Ridder has reserved his ruling.