Glenorchy City Council: Ratepayers stung by property revaluations

Several Glenorchy ratepayers have been stung with an unexpectedly high rates notice, but the council says the numbers are out of its control. Here’s why you might be affected.

Frustrated concerned young couple calculating their budget

Several Glenorchy ratepayers were shocked to open their rates notices, with many finding their bills had gone up by hundreds of dollars because of property revaluations.

Homes in the municipality were recently revalued by Tasmania’s valuer-general, which has a direct impact on the calculation of rates.

At Monday’s council meeting, members of the public raised concerns about increases.

“Many ratepayers have been severely affected,” community member Jan Bryan said.

“There has been unexplainable and excessive rate increases on certain properties across the municipality.”

Several Glenorchy ratepayers have been stung with an unexpectedly high rates notice.

Rates are calculated based on a property’s annual assessed value (AAV) – how much it could theoretically generate in rental income in a given year.

The council takes that number and multiplies is with a ‘cents in the dollar’ figure to work out the yearly rate.

The council decides the ‘cents in the dollar’ amount.

Ratepayer Kevin Robinson said he was surprised to see his AAV increase from $28700 to $54,000.

He said it translated to him paying an extra $70 per fortnight on rates.

“My rates went up by $1472 for 12 months. That’s a lot of money,” he told the council on Monday.

“It went from $2817 to $4289 (yearly figure).

“It’s pretty hard to justify.”

He said he did not believe the valuations were accurate, pointing out online his property was estimated to have a weekly rental value of $730 at most.

“It’s definitely not 1038 a week … I wouldn’t get that in a rental,’ he said.

In June the council released its estimates its overall rate revenue would increase by 5.95 per cent as a result of the new valuations, generating an additional $2.6m

Glenorchy City Council Tony McMullen said the council had no involvement in rate revaluations.

“It is council’s understanding that people can lodge an objection to the Valuer-General if they are not satisfied with the valuation of their property, and that in relation to properties that were recently revalued in Glenorchy, this would need to be lodged by Friday,” he said.

“In the six years since the last valuation conducted by the Valuer-General, generally there has been a significant increase in the price of houses and land, and this is reflected in the recent valuations.

“While some properties may have increased in valuation, others will have decreased.”