Wellington Mayor Andrew Little said they had accidentally overcharged ratepayers. Video / Mark Mitchell
A second accounting blunder has been discovered in Wellington City Council’s rates bills, the mayor has revealed.
Last year the council was forced to apologise to ratepayers after it accidentally undercharged ratepayers for the city’s special sludge levy.
The $3.4 million error meant ratepayers were charged an average of $40,between $3 and $100 per household.
Speaking to Newstalk ZBWellington Mornings Host Nick Mills this morning, Mayor Andrew Little said a new error has been found.
“We’ve got another mistake [that has] just become apparent in the last few days, which is we’ve overcharged, by a small amount, Wellington ratepayers on the Greater Wellington Regional Council levy,” Little said.
The average overcharge was about $10, coming from the Greater Wellington Regional Council charge, which will be deducted from upcoming rates bills.
In a statement following Little’s comments to Mills, a spokesman said the second error was discovered during a review into the first error.
“Wellington City Council is today apologising to ratepayers for a second mistake in the calculation of their 2025-26 rates bills; however, the second mistake means ratepayers will have to pay less than previously thought,” the statement said.
“I‘m really apologetic for it, genuinely,” she said at the time.
Wellington City Council chief strategy and finance officer Andrea Reeves. Photo / Supplied
At the time, Mills called for Reeves should resign over the incident.
Little today said Reeves was “doing a great job”.
“She sees the problem, she’s got independent people coming in to [investigate] what the process problems are that lead to these mistakes,” he said.
“We are fixing the sludge levy error and Great Wellington rates error in the rates invoices people will receive in the week beginning 3 February 2026,” Reeves said in a statement today.
“Ratepayers will see a credit to reverse the overcharge, and an amount for the sludge levy undercharge – so ratepayers will have a lower catch up than we initially expected,” she said.
Reeves was unavailable for an interview about the issue when asked by the Herald today.
A council spokesman earlier said the previous undercharge legally could not be waived or absorbed, and ratepayers would have to foot it in their February and May rates bills, so it could be passed on to the sludge facility’s funding entity.
That mistake happened when the levy was uploaded into the billing system, the council said.
“Some amounts were entered as GST-inclusive instead of GST-exclusive, and an incorrect fixed charge was used.”
It was a case of human error that came about during the data entry stage, Reeves confirmed.
“To prevent this happening again, stronger internal controls have been put in place, including additional review steps.”
Council now said they were “confident” all rates assessments are correct, but if a ratepayer would like an updated Greater Wellington rates assessment, the can contact council.
Ethan Manera is a Wellington-based journalist covering Wellington issues, local politics and business in the capital. He can be emailed at ethan.manera@nzme.co.nz.
