Ratepayers 'nit-picking'

Bruce Rogan

A Northland council at the centre of a protracted legal battle with its defaulting ratepayers has accused them of "nit-picking" defects in rates' notices and invoices.

Kaipara District Council's lawyer David Neutze yesterday told a hearing in the Whangarei District Court that court should not be inundated with cases dealing with validation of the council's rates as the High Court was the appropriate forum to deal with the issue.

Mr Neutze was addressing the court at the start of a two-day hearing to determine whether the council has powers to legally recoup rates as well as penalties not paid by striking Kaipara ratepayers since 2012.

Bruce Rogan, chairman of the Mangawhai Ratepayers and Residents' Association (MRRA), has filed legal proceedings in the District Court as a test case ahead of a Court of Appeal hearing into the validity of rates in late August. The council is taking to court about 100 defaulting ratepayers, including Mr Rogan, who owe nearly $1 million in rates and penalties from 2012 in protest against Parliament passing the Kaipara Validation Act. The act validated irregularities in the setting and assessing of Kaipara district rates from the 2006/07 financial year to 2011/12 in respect of a wastewater scheme. One defaulting ratepayer owes the council more than $100,000 while others are being asked to pay five-figure sums.

The council is seeking $14,946 from Mr Rogan and his wife Heather for their Mangawhai Heads' property.

Mr Rogan claimed the rates' assessment notice for 2013/14 and 2014/15 did not clearly identify the statutory information that must be stipulated according to the Local Government (Rating) Act 2002.

In court, Mr Neutze said Justice Paul Heath had earlier ruled that rates were validated for all purposes and must be paid. "The district court shouldn't be inundated with these sorts of cases.

"The rates are valid unless they are deemed illegal by a court of competence," he said.

Mr Rogan's supporters turned up en masse and spilled over in the public gallery, forcing court staff to exclude about 25 people.