Reply To: Part year rating
Hi Everyone
Further to Mick’s comment I would like to draw everyone attention to page 110 of the Rating and Revenue raising manual which aligns with the legal opinion obtained by Newcastle which I have copied below:
Following the sub-division of a parcel of land, rates cannot be levied on new lots until supplementary valuations have been provided to the council by the Valuer General and the council has categorised each of the new parcels. Once this has happened, rates can be levied on a pro-rata basis from the date the deposited plan was registered. If a council levies rates on new parcels of land on a pro-rata basis, an adjustment must be made in respect of the parcel of land that existed prior to the sub-division to reflect that rates and charges are only payable on that parcel up until the date of sub-division. The levying of rates mid year will not adversely affect a council’s maximum general
income limit as supplementary valuations furnished during the year are included when the notional general income for the previous year is calculated. Although the legislation does allow councils to levy rates on newly sub-divided
parcels mid-year, it does not however compel them to do so. The decision on when to levy rates on these properties is one for each council.
I urge everyone do some modelling and see how this affects your Council, for some it maybe beneficial for other not so much.
This has been done by lots of Council’s both metro and regional for many years and I have not heard of one court case where this practice has ever been challenged.
Hope this helps
