He said the council inspected his property shortly after he objected. But then - despite repeated calls - council didn't tell him the outcome of his objection until last week when his home was revalued at $1.8m shortly after he complained to the Herald.
He said he was happy to now get a small reduction in his rates.
"But most gratifying is the fact they've now finally corresponded with me – they recognise the fact I'm here and I'm alive," he joked.
Robertson's lengthy case comes as Auckland Council's latest round of automated valuations has been hit by troubles after thousands of assessments were delayed.
It also illustrates some of the troubles that a capital gains tax could run into if its introduction required the valuation of every property in the country as some pundits have speculated.
Council staff admitted in July last year that almost three-quarters of the 7893 valuation objections they received had been delayed by problems with Quotable Value, the company contracted to complete them.
Rhonwen Heath, council rates and development contributions manager and Fran Maguire, business improvement and projects manager, wrote in a letter to councillors at the time alleging that QV had breached its contract.
"Council is disappointed in the quality of QV's work which has resulted in lengthy delays for ratepayers and considerable re-work for the council and QV," they wrote.
"As a result, we are currently withholding payments to QV until this issue has been resolved as a priority."
Heath said the 72 objections that were still in dispute now had been further delayed because of "the additional quality assurance checks which have been put in place to ensure that a fair and legally compliant assessment is completed for each objection".
However, she said the delays were also caused in "a small number of cases" by human error.
People objecting to their rates bills can first appeal to council for a revaluation. If negotiations with council fail to produce a result they can then seek a ruling from the Land Valuations Tribunal.
Bayleys real estate agent and property analyst Alistair Helm said errors in council valuations also had wider implications for the property market.
The valuations are only done every three or four years, and - in the past decade when Auckland house prices had skyrocketed at frantic paces - they had quickly become out of date.
But with city's house prices plateauing in the past 18 months, buyers and sellers had tended to view council valuations as a reference point for what a home's true value might be more than they had in the past, he said.
This had led to a quandary for some homeowners, he said.
Did they want to have higher council valuations in the hope it might help get a higher sale price or did they want lower valuations so they would pay reduced rates bills?
Added to this was the prospect of a possible capital gains tax from 2021.
A future tax may be charged on the gain in price a house sells for compared to its value as calculated on April 1, 2021 by a mass, automated valuation, which has already been termed "V-Day" by pundits.
Helm predicted a capital gains tax valuation process - when so much more money was at stake - would be flooded with objections in comparison to any council valuation calculated for rates purposes.
