Rates

This is the notice sent to property owners each rating year (1 July – 30 June) with the amount of rates you will be asked to pay on your property for the year and any changes to your payment schedule if you have one.

Your invoice (now sent twice a year not quarterly) lists the specific charges applied to your property – targeted rates, UAGC, urban waste and recycling collection, water rates. It includes any payments you have made or if a rebate has been applied, and the amount that needs to be paid in full by the due date.

This year, because of the delay in sending the first invoice, the due date has been pushed out to 20 January 2025.

A direct debit is a regular payment that’s approved by you and set up and managed by us at council. It means you can spread the cost of your rates across the whole rating year on a regular day that suits you (weekly, fortnightly, monthly or quarterly) rather than paying at each instalment due date. You don’t have to worry about penalties or due dates or calculate payment amounts yourself because we do this for you, no penalties or late fees apply.

An automatic payment is a regular payment that's set up and controlled by you through your bank for a set amount each time. Although you can manage the payments to suit you (for example weekly, fortnightly or monthly) if there is a change in your rates or you miss a payment, you will need to make the change in your automatic payment yourself or pay a top-up to ensure your invoice is paid in full by each time. Unlike direct debit, a penalty is charged on any outstanding balance after the due date.

The council rating year is 1 July to 30 June. All councils in Aotearoa have the same rating year but invoice ratepayers at different times. For example, the Bay of Plenty Regional Council sends out its invoices once a year in September.

Previously, Ōpōtiki District Council sent rates invoices in July, October, January and April.

This year, we have delayed the adoption of our Long Term Plan because changes to national legislation mean we must now re-include three waters infrastructure (wastewater, stormwater, water supply).

This means we will not be able to send rates assessments or invoices until November. There will then be a second invoice in May.

We have decided to keep the change to two invoices a year permanent for consistency and to reduce administrative costs.

When you receive your invoice in November, it will be at least twice as big as previous rates invoices because it will be for six months (from July to December) not three months as previously. It will also be slightly higher again to account for a likely rates rise that has yet to be adopted by council.

You may need to start planning now to spread the cost of that invoice across the year. The action you take will depend on how you pay your rates. You can read more about what you need to do if you pay by direct debit, automatic payment, a one-off payment each year or when you receive each invoice (over the counter, online, or by internet banking or credit card).

Until council has adopted a Long Term Plan, we cannot know the rates due on each property (your rates assessment). However, you may be able to make a fairly accurate guess based on the figures in our draft LTP.

You may have heard some talk about rates rises for councils throughout Aotearoa this year. It is costing all councils more to do less, and reintroducing Three Waters is also taking a toll on rates everywhere.

In Ōpōtiki, our draft LTP uses a proposed rates rise of around 10% (keep a lookout for Council’s Long Term Plan 2024-34 Consultation Document). That is an average figure so some properties would be higher and some lower. But we won’t know the final rates rise figure until after public consultation and adoption of the plan by council.

When estimating your rates for 2024/25, you could use the same amounts as last year, but add a small additional amount (for example 4%) for the likely rates rise this year.

A rates rebate is government-funded scheme to help households on a low income to pay their rates. The amount of rebate is calculated based on your rates assessment, the number of children or other dependents, and your household income. The maximum rebate you can get this coming year is $790.

You can apply for the rebate once per year, at any time in the rating year. That means you can apply for your annual rates rebate when you receive your invoice in November or any time until the end of the rating year on 30 June 2025.

We will let you know if your application is successful, and the amount of your rebate. We will apply that credit to your rates account and let you know the balance of your account". Your next (May) invoice will include any subsequent receipts and payments made (including your rate rebate), to show what is left to pay by that invoice due date.

The Long Term Plan (we call it the LTP for short) is the document that outlines our activities, services, projects, capital works, and finances for the next ten years. We need it so that we know what our budgets are and how much rates income we need to do all those things we listed in the LTP. So until we have that document, we can’t calculate each property’s annual rates amount.

You can read more about the LTP and make sure you get involved in the public consultation part of that process on our website - connect.odc.govt.nz.

This year we have delayed the adoption of our Long Term Plan because we needed to re-include three waters infrastructure (wastewater, stormwater, water supply) into our LTP. Under previous legislation, these services were to be moved into new water services entities. However, with the repeal of that legislation under the coalition government, this now needs to come back onto our books. This has taken longer than expected and we won’t sign off our LTP until the end of October.

That means, while our rating year started on 1 July, we won’t be able to tell you exactly what your rates are (your Rates Assessment) until November.

You may have heard some talk about rates rises for councils throughout Aotearoa this year. It is costing all councils more to do less, and reintroducing Three Waters is also taking a toll on rates everywhere.

In Ōpōtiki, our draft LTP uses a proposed rates rise of 10.5%. That is an average figure so some properties would be higher and some lower. But we won’t know the final rates rise figure until after public consultation and adoption.

This figure will apply from 1 July 2024, even though we won’t be able to sign it off until October.

A direct debit is a regular payment that’s approved by you and set up and managed by us at council.

An automatic payment is a regular payment that's set up and controlled by you (through your bank) for a set amount each time.

Both of these have the advantage of spreading the cost of your rates across the whole rating year on a regular day that suits you (weekly, fortnightly, monthly or quarterly) rather than paying at each instalment due date. This means those payments can align with the timing for income like wages or salary payments. It also means you can ‘set and forget’ your payments and they will continue.

The key difference is that when you enter a direct debit payment plan with council, under our Rates Remission and Postponement policy, we treat your rates as ‘postponed’ until the end of the rating year as long as you continue the direct debit payments. That means there are no penalties or overdue fees because the direct debit calculations mean your rates will be paid off by the end of the rating year.

Any other payment options, for example automatic payments, bank transfers, internet banking or cash, mean that your rates must be paid by the due date for each invoice. Unlike direct debit, a penalty is charged on any outstanding balance after the due date. That means, you need to keep a much closer eye on your rates notifications because if there is a change in your rates, or your calculations are slightly off for the invoice period, you may have an outstanding amount to pay before the due date.

If you don’t know which of these applies to you or you want to know more, please talk to our rates team on 07 315 3030.

If you already have a direct debit with us, you don’t have to take any action now.

1. Your direct debits will continue the same as last year (weekly, fortnightly, monthly or quarterly).
2. Optional you can let us know if you would like to increase your existing direct debit payments by a small amount (for example 4%). This will help to cover some of the likely increase in your rates for this year.

In November, when we know your rates assessment for the 2024/25 year, we will recalculate your direct debit payments. That new payment amount will include any outstanding rates from the first half of the year spread across the remaining six months. We will inform you of this change and your direct debits will continue as normal.

In future years, each July we will send you your rates assessment notice letting you know your rates for the year and what that means for your direct debits. Your direct debits will continue on that basis.

If your direct debit in previous years was quarterly when you received each invoice, these will continue with the same timing and amount as last year until we know your rates assessment for this year. That means, your first payment will go out on 23 August at last year’s amount unless you tell us otherwise. You will not receive an invoice for this payment.

When we know your rates assessment in November, we will spread any remaining unpaid amount across the remainder of the year. If you would prefer to change to six-monthly (in line with the invoice due dates), just give us a call and we will make that change to your direct debit.

In future years, each July we will send you your rates assessment notice letting you know your rates for the year and what that means for your quarterly direct debits. Your direct debits will continue on that basis.

Technical rates-processing information: if you are on a quarterly direct debit payment with council, when we set up your direct debit, we will have set the payment for the invoice due date, not a quarterly calendar payment date (unless you specifically advised us otherwise).

With the move to half-yearly invoices, we have changed these direct debit payments from ‘invoice due date’ to ‘calendar year quarterly’ as that is the least disruptive to you and avoids a larger direct debit payment with the invoice in November.

If however, you would prefer to make those payments as each invoice is due (now half-yearly), please give us a call and we will make that change to your direct debit.

You can continue your automatic payments on the same amount as last year and then make a top-up payment to cover any shortfall amount when you receive your first invoice in November.

Alternatively, you could increase your payments slightly (for example by 4%) and then you will have less to pay in November when you receive your invoice.

In November, you will also have to change your automatic payment amount to ensure it covers your full rates assessment for the second half of the year. Unlike a direct debit arrangement, late payment penalty is charged on any outstanding amounts after the invoice due dates.

In future years, each July we will send you your rates assessment notice letting you know your rates for the year and you will need to organise your automatic payments so that they clear your rates by each half-yearly due date. We can help with guidance on how to calculate your automatic payments.

You need to consider what you can do to be ready for a larger rates invoice in November. Remember – it will be for half of the year (so twice as big as a quarterly invoice) and it is likely to be around 10% higher than last year (based on the projected rates rise in the draft LTP).

We have made the due date later than usual – 20 January - to allow people more time to arrange rates payments by the due date.

But you can also consider how you can spread the rates over the whole year, not just when the invoice is due.

• Now is a good time to set up a direct debit – you can divide your rates payments over the whole year with a regular day that suits you – weekly, fortnightly, monthly or quarterly and we will manage the process for you. That way you won’t need to make any additional payments or adjustments or worry about late fees or penalties.
• Organise your own automatic payment directly to us or to a bank account you keep safe from spending so that the funds are set aside when you receive your rates invoice in November.
• Get in touch to talk about how you can start preparing now with our rates team.