I recently tried to request from Council a revaluation of my property given the average 19% decline in the value of all the houses in my street in the recent council "re-valuation".
This was declined because the "window for requests for re-valuation has closed".
What obvious tosh!
Council was a YEAR LATE with their revised valuations and then gave the public a far too short time period to object to the outrageously over valued property "guesses".
When we tried to do that - the portal pages that allowed us to do the request online was not accessible! (Even getting a reply confirming that the portal was closed took two weeks!).
However, the "good news", was that "for ONLY $550 council will allow me" to request a revaluation.
This is simply wrong.
Council have imposed a ridiculously short time frame to object, then closed the online process "because they were overwhelmed" (again, after being a year late with their own performance in getting the detail to their customer base). But, they allow the process to proceed for an outrageously high "fee"!
Perhaps this huge response is because council first tried to just drop the new valuations on the ratepayer just as the "5.8%" general rates rise was released to the ratepayers. (My own rates increase was over 15% by the way - despite the value of my house dropping significantly!).
They then forced everyone who wished to, to respond in an unreasonably short time frame, and this compounded the problem - That being the case, it's hardly a surprise that they were overwhelmed, is it?
The fact that so many re requesting revaluations is also revealing, as it shows how badly the "values" aligned with both the statistics and reality!
Council management needs to direct their officials to reopen the "window" and allow valuation objections again and communicate this opportunity to the voters, and ratepayers.
The entire process and their response refusing to allow a re-valuation from the council staff reeks of bureaucratic collusion, deliberate deception, and convenience for Council - at the expense of the long-suffering ratepayer.
Council management must instruct their staff to re-open the revaluation process again as It is the fair, decent and democratic thing to do.
Once again, the obtuse council staff have failed the ratepayers -i.e. those that pay their salaries.
This refusal to open the revaluation process again is simply WRONG!
Roger Hawkins
Herne Bay
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