Wellington Rates Revolt leader retiree Judy Rohloff on refusing to pay 21% increase

• Karori resident Judy Rohloff is the woman behind the ‘Wellington Rates Revolt’, refusing to pay her 21% rates rise and encouraging others to do the same.
• Rohloff believes Wellington City Council’s spending priorities are misguided, focusing on speed humps and cycleways rather than fixing leaks.
• Rates in Wellington have increased this year by an average of $1000 per household or 21%.

Wellington retiree Judy Rohloff loves her historic Karori home.

The walls are lined with countless family photos and memorabilia from past holidays. It’s where she and her husband raised their children. And it’s where the pair, now in their 70s, plan to live out the rest of their lives. Husband Maurie recently installed railings to support Judy with her Parkinson’s.

The couple have lived in the 1920s bungalow for 30 years. Now retired, they’re living off superannuation supplemented with “a little bit of savings”.

They fear if council rates continue to increase, one day they might not be able to afford to stay in their “forever home”.

Rohloff has decided to do something about it.

“We’ve taken a stand,” she said. The couple are continuing to pay their rates bill at last year’s rate, but not the extra 21%. Judy is encouraging others to do the same.

Earlier this year, she started a Facebook group called Wellington Rates Revolt, where ratepayers air their concerns about Wellington City Council spending. Rohloff also recently held a public meeting in a Karori church with other disgruntled ratepayers to discuss the revolt.

“I’ve never done anything like that before; it was all new to me, but I started it up,” she said.

Judy Rohloff's "forever" home in Karori is full of photographs and family memorabilia. Photo / Mark Mitchell

It began when Rohloff wrote to the council late last year to “put them on notice that we weren’t going to pay the increases as long as they continued with the frivolous spending”.

Her main issue is the council’s financial management, believing spending is focused on the wrong issues like building cycleways and speed humps.

Rohloff said more ratepayer money should be directed towards Wellington’s crumbling water infrastructure.

“You can walk down any street in Karori basically and see leaks everywhere.”

Rates in Wellington have increased this year by an average of $1000 per household or 21%. That includes Greater Wellington Regional Council and Wellington City Council rates and a new levy to pay for a facility to process wastewater sludge.

In the Rohloffs’ first year in their home, 1993/1994, their annual rates bill was $842.64. Their current bill is $6,675.92.

It’s an increase of nearly 700%, while the cumulative inflation increase over the same period has been 107.1%.

Rohloff said if projections are correct, her rates bill will take up the majority of her superannuation payments within the next few years. She fears if it continues to increase at the rate projected, they may not be able to continue living in their home.

Judy Rohloff says council traffic improvements in Karori are making the suburb worse. Photo / Mark Mitchell

She’s written to several local MPs, councillors, the mayor and Local Government Minister Simeon Brown requesting a meeting to discuss her concerns, and advocate for Government intervention in the council.

Rohloff said her Facebook group has about 800 members. She said while many are discussing the idea of revolting against their rates bill, only a small number have actually refused to pay the increase.

She said “a lot of people are too scared” because of the potential consequences.

“People are very upset – well, not just upset, very angry.”

Rohloff believes the rates increases will have detrimental impacts not only on individual households, but on the whole city.

“Who’s going to want to buy a place in Wellington? People are trying to get out of Wellington because they can’t afford the rates.”

Disgruntled ratepayer Judy Rohloff is leading Wellington's rates revolt. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Rohloff has already received a letter from Wellington City Council about her failure to pay her full rates bill. She’s currently “overdue” $320.51.

“This includes a 10% penalty of $29.14 including GST that has been applied on the instalment amount. We will be sending your next rates invoice around 1 November”, the letter reads.

Wellington City Council’s website states an additional charge of 10% is added on July 1 and January 1 to rates that remain unpaid from previous years.

Asked what she plans to do about the letter, Rohloff laughs “just ignore it”.

Councils also have the power to force banks to pay a customer’s overdue rates if the ratepayer has a mortgage. A recent post in the Facebook group by one ratepayer claims Wellington City Council has contacted their bank, but the council refused to comment.

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It said in a statement it would “prefer not to comment” on the rates revolters in general, but did confirm the council had received five pieces of correspondence from ratepayers who expressed concerns about affordability.

The council was “not getting any discernible communication from people who are refusing to pay their rates”.

A number of measures are available to the council to recover unpaid rates under the Local Government (Rating) Act 2002. It allows councils to take court proceedings against property owners, place covenants on the property’s title and, in extreme cases, allows councils to demand the sale of a property.

Rohloff said she’s not worried about the council’s next steps to reclaim unpaid rates.

“Let’s face it, this council will hopefully be voted out.”