Couple appeal order to pay rates

Bruce Rogan

A Mangawhai couple is appealing against a district court decision which ordered them to pay more than $20,000 in outstanding rates and penalties to the Kaipara District Council.

Bruce and Heather Rogan refused to pay their rates and penalties from 2011 to 2015 because they claimed the KDC and the Northland Regional Council issued them documents that did not comply with the Local Government Rating Act. The figure also included rates' demands on behalf of the NRC from 2012 and 2014.

The Rogans said defects in the rates assessment notice sent by the council rendered the document invalid. In July, they were forced to defend proceedings in the Whangarei District Court brought by the council against them to recover the rates arrears in a test case for the council.

Judge Keith de Ridder allowed the regional council to join proceedings as a party - a move opposed by the Rogans.

The Rogans were ordered to pay KDC $20,878 and interest at 5 per cent from October 14, 2014, until the date of payment.

Their lawyer, Jeremy Browne, this week filed an appeal in the High Court in Whangarei, seeking orders that Judge de Ridder's judgment and his decision to allow the regional council to join court proceedings be set aside.

They are also seeking costs in the High Court and the district court.

Mr Browne spelled out a number of grounds for the appeal. He said by allowing the regional council to join proceedings just 11 days before the start of the trial prejudiced his clients by denying them an opportunity to analyse the legality of the regional council's rates for the rating years in question. The district court failed to appreciate that a valid rates' assessment notice was needed to trigger rates' liability and a valid rates' invoice the obligation to pay.

Mr Brown said the court erred in interpreting the Local Government Rating Act as only allowing challenges to be made in the High Court and on limited grounds.

The Rogans 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 retrospectively 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.