Hi Andrea,
Our Revenue Policy contains the following simple statement.
“Use of land values on newly created property”
“Upon registration of a plan of subdivision or consolidation with the Registrar General, City of Newcastle will rate the property(s) within the plan from the registration date of the Deposited or Strata Plan.”
The basis for rating from the date of registration was predicated on a legal opinion we obtained many years ago. The opinion said something along the lines of that the original unsubdivided parcel of land ceases to exist as an entity when a new plan of subdivision is registered over that land. This means that rates can’t be levied on land which no longer exists – hence waiting until the following quarter isn’t appropriate based on the opinion.
Using the legal opinion as the basis – rating from the date of registration importantly also maximized the revenue we could generate as opposed to quarterly rating.
I trust this helps.
Mick
