Wellington residents overcharged for council rates

On average, residential ratepayers in Wellington City have been overcharged $30 per year. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Wellington City residents have been overcharged for regional council rates over the past four years due to what has been described as an “unfortunate error”.

On average, residential ratepayers have been overcharged $30 per year and rural ratepayers $36 per year.

The opposite problem has occurred for central business district ratepayers, who have been undercharged $583 per year and businesses $160 per year.

The issue was discovered during a rates modelling exercise undertaken by Greater Wellington Regional Council and is isolated to the Wellington City area.

Regional council chief executive Nigel Corry said it stems from when the organisation changed its basis for collecting rates, setting four differentials to recover different amounts of money from certain types of land and ratepayers.

“This is an unfortunate error. While Greater Wellington issued a media release at the time about its changes to its rating policy, the direct communication to Wellington City Council staff did not sufficiently convey that there had been a change in policy.”

Wellington City Council collects the rates set by the regional councils.

Both councils immediately put new checks and balances in place when the error was discovered to make sure it did not happen again, Corry said.

“Rates collected through other territorial authorities in the Wellington region have not been impacted. The fault went unnoticed as the total amount was correct but collected in the wrong proportions.”

While the correct differentials are now in place, the council is seeking independent advice on what to do about those who were over and undercharged.

Options will be presented to councillors later this month.

Wellington City Council chief executive Barbara McKerrow said the councils have been working together to issue correct rating assessment notices and make sure essential communications between them are tightened.

Georgina Campbell is a Wellington-based reporter who has a particular interest in local government, transport, and seismic issues. She joined the Herald in 2019 after working as a broadcast journalist.