Rating valuations

A rating valuation is assigned to every property in New Zealand and is made up of:

• Capital Value (CV) - this is what your property is likely to have sold for at the date of the council’s last general valuation. It includes buildings and improvements. It does NOT include chattels, stock, crops, machinery or trees. The CV is also known as the Rateable Value (RV), and was previously known as the Government Valuation (GV).
• Land Value (LV) - this is the mostly likely selling price of bare land at valuation date. It includes drainage, excavation, filling, retaining walls, reclamation, grading, levelling, vegetation clearing, soil improvement, and protection from erosion or flooding. It does NOT include buildings. Land Value is used by the Buller District council to levy its general rates.
• Value of Improvements (VI) - this is just the difference between the land value and the capital value. It’s important to note here it does not mean the replacement cost of buildings and services on a property. It reflects the value which buildings and improvements add to the bare land.

The Rating Valuations Act 1988 requires all properties to be valued every three years. The valuation contributes and assists the Council to set property rates fairly. The Council follows the rules set out in the Rating Valuation Act 1998 and the valuation is audited by the Office of the Valuer-General.

An online version of the rules is available on the Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) website.

Valuations are carried out every three years, Council contracts QV to complete this work. The latest valuation was done in 2019.

QV’s qualified valuers combine their own experience and the latest valuation methodologies and technology to calculate your properties value. QV take a mass appraisal approach and will consider all factors influencing a property’s likely selling price, such as the property’s size, features, and recent refurbishments. They also consider the value of similar properties recently sold in the local area.

The Buller district contains just under 8,000 properties. It is therefore not possible for valuers to view every single property in person. They will utilise a range of tools to produce the property valuations, including statistical analysis, testing and inspections of properties during the rating period in the district to ensure accuracy.

The process of calculating rating values is independently audited by the Office of the Valuer General and strict quality standards must be met before a revaluation is confirmed.

For more information on rating valuation, visit About Rating Valuations on QV’s website. You can also email ratingsupport@qv.co.nz or phone 0800 786 822 to talk to Quotable Value directly.

Revaluation is just one of a number of factors that help determine your rates. An increase in the capital value of your property doesn’t mean your rates will increase by the same amount.

Buller District Council charges rates based on the land value of property, whereas QV establish the total capital value of a property by establishing the land value and improvements value. For residential properties in Buller, only a proportion of your rates bill is based on the land value of a property, with the majority of the rates set based on a fixed amount per property, because the Uniform Annual General Charge and fixed targeted rates for water, wastewater and solid waste are charged depending on availability of these services.

Any rates increase is determined by your property value increase compared with the average increase across other properties which are in the same rating category as you.

For example, a 40% increase in your residential property’s land value definitely does not mean a 40% increase in your rates. If it has increased by more than the average increase 88%, then you may pay a slightly larger share of the total general rates. If it has increased less than the average, you may pay a lower share of the total general rates (this means that in some cases, even if your valuation has gone up, your rates could go down).

Rates provide around half of Council’s budgeted income and this money pays for roads, stormwater and wastewater systems, water supplies, libraries, parks and reserves and so on. The remaining income is generated from fees and charges, subsidies and grants, council investments a distribution from the Council Controlled Organisation being a share of their annual surplus.

Your rates consist of three components:

• Uniform annual general charge (UAGC)– is a fixed amount billed to all properties (regardless of the property’s value).  For the rating year commencing 1 July 2023, this is proposed to be $632.50
• Targeted rates– are billed to each household for certain services or facilities that are available to the household.  These include sewerage, waste collection and water supply.
• General rates– are set and billed by dividing the remaining cost that has not been recovered through the UAGC, targeted rates and other Council income by the land value of the districts properties.  Each property will pay its share of this cost based on the land value of their property and the differential that applies to the property based on where it is located and the activity or use of the land.

The Council sets its rates annually after it has estimated the cost required to operate the Council and deliver services and facilities to the community.

A current market valuation provides you with a professional estimation from the registered valuer you have employed of how much, in their opinion, your property is worth in today's property market.

A Council rating valuation is undertaken by Council's valuation service provider to establish property values at a specific point in time to enable council rates to be apportioned, and excludes the value of chattels. Council currently arranges for revaluations to be conducted every three years, and hence a rating value is only an accurate measure of a property's relative value at the date of the current revaluation, which is currently 1 September 2022.

The rating valuation may be amended during the three-year period between revaluations because of one or more of the following:

• Any works affecting the land value
• Any change in the boundaries of a local authority
• Any extraordinary event affecting property values
• Any change in the provisions of an operative district plan
• Any subdivision, amalgamation, or resurvey of the land
• Any improvements being added to or removed from the land
• Any errors or omissions

By requesting a new value as at the date of the last revaluation under Section 16 of the Rating Valuation Act 1998.

If you have an addition or alteration to your property that requires a building consent, our valuers will automatically be advised of this by our building consenting team. This may or may not result in a change to your value.

If you have made renovations (that did not require a building consent) and want to make sure QV is aware of your changes, the best way to do this is to use Quotable Value’s UpdatemyProperty service.

Once QV are made aware of any renovations completed, your valuation will be updated prior to the next rating year, so it’s important ratepayers use this service to keep their rating value up-to-date and accurate.

Ratepayers have the right to object to their rating valuations. These objections allow valuers to assess individual components which may not have been considered in the mass-appraisal process.

Objections must be lodged with Quotable Value by 8 June 2023. Visit QV’s website for more information. If you need assistance, please give QV’s revaluation team a call on 0800 787 284 or email ratingsupport@qv.co.nz.