Rating valuations

The law requires local authorities to review rateable values on all properties in its district every three years.

A rating value is what is used by the council to set rates on your property. It is set by independent valuers and is a ‘snapshot in time’ reflecting the value on a particular date. The 2016 revaluations are set as at 1 July, 2016.

This is the likely price a property would sell for at the time of revaluation.

This is the likely price the land would sell for at the time of the revaluation. The Land Value includes any development work which may have been carried out, such as draining, excavation, filling, retaining walls, reclamation, grading, leveling, clearing of vegetation, fertility build-up, or protection from erosion or flooding.

This is the difference between the Capital Value and Land Value. It reflects the added value given to the land by any buildings or other structures present on the property, and any landscaping that has been done. It is not intended to indicate the actual cost of building or landscaping.

Rating values are prepared by an independent specialist valuation company. The 2016 revaluations were carried out by Opteon (formerly known as Landmass Technology).

The Rating Valuations Act sets minimum standards and specifications necessary for the maintenance and upkeep of district valuation rolls in the interests of ensuring a nationally consistent, impartial, independent, and equitable rating valuation system. The Office of the Valuer General monitors, audits and certifies revaluations.

Rating values care calculated using a complex process called mass appraisal.

In its simplest sense, valuers consider all relevant property sales which occurred in an area around the date of the valuation. A market trend is established and applied to similar properties in the area.

A number of assessments of individual properties are completed every year as a result of building consents issues, subdivisions, sales inspections, objections and ratepayer requests to update their rating value.

Not necessarily. Your rating value is expressed as a percentage of the total properties of all properties in the district when rates are assessed. If all rating values drop by the same amount, your proportion of rates would remain the same.

We store details on every property which valuers use as part of the process. These reflect the changes that the council knows about e.g. new buildings that have required a consent.

Those ratepayers who have made changes to their properties that the council has not been notified about can ask for the valuers to reconsider the rating value through the objection process.

Rating values exist for the purpose of apportioning rates and are determined as at an effective date. A current market valuation can be requested at any point in time.

They are at the property owners cost and involve an extensive interior and exterior inspection as well as an assessment of comparable sales.

Objections to revaluation can be lodged with the council only when the objection process is open which is approximately six weeks from when a new valuation is published. The objection due date can be found on your valuation notice.

Objection to rating valuation form (PDF, 324Kb)

All properties that have an objection lodged against the values are inspected as it is a legal requirement. A valuer may contact you if the inspection and consequent review cannot be conducted from the outside of the property. The outcome of the consideration of your objection will be advised to you in writing.

You may seek to have your objection heard by the Land Valuation Tribunal for a fee of $50. At the hearing you will be required to state your estimate of the value and provide evidence to support your claim.

This evidence would normally be information about sales of similar properties, which occurred at, or near, the date of the valuation being objected to.

The Land Valuation Tribunal will make a decision based on the evidence presented.