Apartment owner Julie Collis' rates bill has risen from $3500 last year to $14,000 because the council changed them from residential rates to commercial rates, in spite of their entire complex being residential apartments.
Video / Alex Burton
Julie Collis couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw her Auckland Council rates bill had jumped $10,000 in one year.
She and husband Peter last year paid $4360 in rates for their two-bedroom apartment in Auckland’s Viaduct district in the city centre.
But this year council hit the retirees witha $14,400 bill.
The jump was because the council listed their apartment in The Landis complex as a commercial property rather than a home - a mistake the council has now owned up to.
At least five neighbours she’s spoken to were also hit with huge increases.
She said when she eventually got through to a council customer service staff member, he effectively told her to pay and ask questions later to avoid late payment penalty fees.
He told her the only way to fix the problem was to ask for a written review - a process that could take 12 weeks or longer, Collis said.
“I said: ‘Can you put me through to somebody that I can talk this through and sort it out with because I can’t find $14,000 just off the top of my head’,” she said.
“He said: ‘No, there is nobody in the council that you can talk to’.”
The Auckland Council said it expects the next few weeks to be extra busy, with the Collises being among tens of thousands of Aucklanders receiving their 2023-2024 rates bills.
For the average household, this year’s bill will rise from $3306 to $3560 after Mayor Wayne Brown’s first budget led to a 7.7 per cent rate rise for home owners.
The first instalments are due by August 31.
As of August 31 last year, 7700 ratepayers had complained about their bills and were still locked in disputes with the council.
About 65,000 ratepayers also missed the first payment deadline.
Rhonwen Heath, council’s head of rates valuations, said “customer experience” teams were instructed to give a “standard response” to ratepayer queries, warning them it may take 12 weeks to assess their complaints.
However, after the Heraldthis week sent a media query to the council about the Collis’ bill, a staff member immediately called them.
The Collis’ apartment’s rating classification was changed back to residential, reducing their bill to roughly what they paid last year.
The couple's bill has now been fixed but most other owners in their complex are still facing huge charges, they say. Photo / Alex Burton
Heath said the council originally rated the Collis’ apartment as commercial because some apartments in The Landis are being rented as serviced apartments.
“We proactively try to ensure the accuracy of our information by each year, asking the managers of serviced apartments in Auckland if there are any properties that should be designated as residential, rather than commercial,” she said.
“Generally, managers know how each apartment unit in their building is being used and can tell us if it is being used commercially. In this case, while we were informed the apartment was not managed as part of a hotel in the building, the use was unknown to us.”
“As per our rates policy and usual processes, the commercial rate was applied as we had no proof of residential use.”
Peter Collis said he and his wife are pleased council quickly corrected its mistake after being contacted by the Herald, but he thought the council’s process is “arrogant”.
He said he had since talked to their body corporate, who told him 80 per cent of The Landis apartment owners are still incorrectly being charged commercial bills.
These owners now face the prospect of having to draw on savings to pay at least $3000-plus towards incorrect rates bills, while potentially waiting weeks for the council to look at their complaint and hopefully refund them.
Collis said the council shouldn’t put ratepayers through this stress.
He said in cases where ratepayers face significantly increased bills, the council should call the body corp, who can give more accurate information about how each apartment is used, he said.
The council could also consider prioritising cases over the phone where there has been a huge bill increase or a rating change from residential to commercial and the likelihood of a mistake is higher.
When Julie Collis first complained about the bill, filling out a form on the council’s website, it took the local authority two weeks to send back an automated reply.
Its reply said it was receiving a “high volume of inquiries” from ratepayers and told Collis she needed to provide evidence and documents to change her apartment’s rating from commercial to residential. It would take 12 weeks or even longer if the council had to “investigate”, and the letter advised her to pay her rates bill in the meantime. Ratepayers typically face penalty fees for late payments.
When she eventually got through, the staff member didn’t connect her with any other support services, such as the council’s debt relief team to potentially defer payment. Nor did the staff member offer to prioritise the review of her bill.
Peter Collis said the service was “terrible”.
Heath said it was important to ensure “everyone pays their fair share of rates” and that her team acted in a consistent manner for all ratepayers.
“With new ratings bills for the new financial year just having been issued, we expect rates queries to be high this month,” she said.
“Rest assured, our rates team is prioritising these requests to ensure customers are not disadvantaged and queries are dealt with in a timely manner.”
