A pensioner and sickness beneficiary hit with a 43 per cent rate rise last year is outraged at the time it is taking Auckland Council to review the new valuation on his Ponsonby home.

Roger Hawkins says as a disabled super annuitant who counts each and every dollar, he has unsuccessfully been trying to hurry along the council in order to reduce his rates, which account for 18 per cent of his pension.

Hawkins lives in what is known as the “Avenues”, a row of desirable historic streets on the Ponsonby/Herne Bay border. The pensioner bought his villa in Wangnui Ave for $69,000 in 1981, but these days, houses are valued at more than $3 million. One house a few doors down from Hawkins’ address recently changed hands for $4.4m.

The latest valuations, based on figures released in March last year, saw Hawkins’ home shoot up in value from $2.05m to $3.25m, made up of $3.1m for the land and $150,000 for his home, which is in a pre-gentrification state with a 1970s kitchen and unsealed driveway.

The big jump in his capital valuation (CV) was the main reason his rates rocketed to $6485 last year.

The new valuations for Auckland were released in March last year and attracted more than 9000 objections. Photo / Fion Goodall

“This is totally unacceptable. Not surprisingly, I objected, as there was no possible justification for a 43 per cent increase, and never will be,” said Hawkins.

The Ponsonby resident is one of 9072 disgruntled ratepayers who objected to the new CVs last year. This followed a four-year, Covid-impacted time lag since the previous valuations, which normally occur every three years.

The new CVs were used to set rates from July last year, but nearly a year later, the council has only completed 39 per cent of the objections and a completion date is a long way off.

In the meantime, objectors like Hawkins must continue to pay the rates set last year and will only get a refund if the CV is reduced. Many objectors want their CVs increased and, if successful, their rates will go up and be backdated to July last year.

Council’s head of rates valuation Rhonwen Heath admitted the process of dealing with valuation objections is “long and drawn out”.

The council made a rod for its own back at the last revaluation exercise in 2018, saying in a media release it was working to clear 7800 objections by June 30 that year. It took a third-party contractor a further eight to 10 months to finish the job.

This time round, Heath said she was hoping to have the outstanding 5512 revaluation objections completed by the end of this year “but can’t give a guarantee”. That will result in some property owners paying higher rates for at least 18 months.

Out of fairness to everyone, Heath said, the council is not prioritising one objection application over another, which helps to work through the objections as efficiently as possible.

The new valuations from Auckland Council have drawn objections from more than 9000 property owners. Photo / Jason Oxenham

Valuation manager Megan Holley said the council must comply with the prescriptive Rating Valuation Rules 2008, which require a valuer to do a site visit, a valuation analysis and an analysis of comparable sales. This can take days and requires sign-off by a registered valuer and the council.

The council has a team of 10 valuers on the job, who get pulled off the revaluation objections from time to time to do other work.

Earlier this year, the council made changes to speed up the process while still complying with the rules, said Holley.

Hawkins alleged that when he raised concerns about how long the process was taking earlier this year, he was told to “[buzz] off and mind my own business - they will get to my claim when they get to it”.

Heath said she was over some of the responses to Hawkins, but couldn’t imagine the council would say that.

“Even if the message is not what the customer would like to hear, we always do go out of our way to be polite and make them as palatable as possible,” she said.

Heath said ratepayers on a low or fixed income, such as a pension, may be eligible for a rebate or postponement.