Pensioners worry rate rises will force them to sell up

Elderly Manukau residents say further rates increases could force them - and others surviving on fixed incomes - to sell their homes.

Counties-Manukau Grey Power secretary Leone D'Ott said yesterday that rising rates and the council's new $300 uniform annual general charge were hitting the elderly hard.

The uniform charge reduces the proportion of rates based on the value of a property by applying a flat charge.

This has seen a rise in residential rates per dwelling in Manurewa, Otara, Mangere and Papatoetoe.

"Some people are starting to realise how this will affect them," said Ms D'Ott. "It will be harder because these people are on fixed incomes.

"I have heard some superannuitants saying if it goes up any more they will be forced to sell up because they are not able to make it."

Mangere East resident Judith Wilson, 74, said that despite a drop in her own rates, the "hullabaloo" caused by rates increases was the determining factor in putting her home of 25 years on the market.

"It's hard enough for pensioners to live day-by-day as it is without having to pay extra rates," she said.

Ms Wilson, who is also chairwoman of the Mangere East Ratepayers Association, said she was considering buying a small unit to live in, or renting.

It was becoming a "common thing" for superannuitants in the area to consider doing, she said.

But Manukau City Council believes options are available to low-earning ratepayers, but admits there could be confusion over the recently introduced uniform charge.

A council spokeswoman said residents were eligible for rates rebates if their income did not exceed $20,000.

Other options were outlined on the council's website, she said.

Councillor Dick Quax agreed the uniform charge was confusing for some and that there was a belief among the elderly that it was adding to the council's coffers.

"The uniform annual general charge is just a mechanism ... to even out the rates and it's really a way of recognising all those things the council supplies which we all use equally," he said.

It was a fair system that would not divide the different communities, particularly as the eastern suburbs continued to carry the bulk of the council's rates burden.

The average rates per dwelling in the east rose from $1593 to $1650, but without the uniform charge this figure would have been $1718.

In the western suburbs the average rise was from $1272 to $1284. Without the charge the rates would have dropped to $1221.

What do you think?

The Herald is looking at how rates rises are hitting residents in cities throughout the Auckland region.

* This week: Manukau.

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