More than 1900 Melbourne ratepayers given refunds on council rate bills

THINK your council rates bill is too high but figure it’s not worth objecting? Think again.

Many ratepayers have been refunded hundreds of dollars in the past two years. Photo: Patria Jannides

THINK your council rates bill is too high but figure it’s not worth objecting? Think again.

A survey of 23 Victorian councils by Leader News has revealed that more than 1900 ratepayers have been successful in getting their rates lowered in the past two years.

But challenging a rates bill or property valuation did not always lead to the expected outcome with at least nine people having their rates increased after their objection.

In the 23 councils surveyed, 467 property valuations were adjusted from 916 objections in 2015-16.

This was a significant drop from the 1490 adjustments made from more than 3100 complaints in 2014-15, which could be due to 2014 being a property revaluation year.

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Knox Council processed 41 residential property objections in 2014-15, which led to an average reduction of $117 in rates payable.

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The largest saving for a single ratepayer was $316 when the capital improved value (total market value of the land, plus buildings and other improvements) of their property dropped $125,000 after the objection.

Councils polled by Leader News asked ratepayers to raise valuation queries with them before lodging a formal objection.

Maribyrnong Council corporate services manager Celia Haddock said 192 people objected to their valuation in 2014-15 with 62 being successful.

Our survey of 23 Victorian councils shows that more than 1900 ratepayers successfully challenged their bills. Picture: Lawrence Pinder

“Some reasons for successful objections include data corrections, incomplete house extensions and house demolishment before revaluation took place,” Ms Haddock said.

Stonnington Council said none of the 42 objections over the two years — 11 of which were successful — led to a higher valuation but noted that in circumstances where that could have occurred the objectors withdrew their complaint.

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Port Phillip Mayor Bernadene Voss said over the two-year period the council had adjusted about one in 880 valuations and the average valuation decrease was 10 per cent.

“Only about one in every 600 ratepayers in Port Phillip objected to their property revaluation,” Cr Voss said.

“If a ratepayer is considering challenging their valuation we encourage them to first call our valuations team to discuss their concerns or questions.”

Over the two-year period there were objections relating to 218 Yarra Ranges properties with 176 successful and seven resulting in higher valuations.

In Darebin there were 598 objections over the two years with 172 leading to adjusted valuations.

This year is a property revaluation year. Valuations are done either in-house by councils or by contractors.

Formal objections to property valuation must be lodged in writing within two months of the date of issue on the rate notice. It is free to object to a property valuation.