In this section

Rates

Buller District Council's rating year is 1 July to 30 June. There are four quarterly instalments covering the periods July to September, October to December, January to March, April to June.

How can I look up my rates?

Click on our rates look-up to find out your rates. Your address or valuation number can be used to search for your property in our rating database. 

Enter the street name followed by street number, e.g. Derby 92 using your address. Please do not enter a street type, e.g., road, avenue or lane.

If you use your valuation number, enter the valuation number e.g. 1897008700.

While all due care has been taken, Buller District Council does not give any warranty that any information contained is accurate.

A little bit about your 2024-2025 rates

Rates can be super confusing, so we thought you might want to know a bit more about what your rates pay for and how they work.  

Rates can be a tricky topic to understand and there is a lot of jargon involved. We have compiled some key information below which will help you to understand a little bit more about your rates for the financial year 2024-2025 (1 July 2024 - 30 June 2025). 

Let's get started and cover off what your rates consist of. There are three components to your rates.  

  • Uniform annual general charge (UAGC) – this is a fixed amount billed to all properties (regardless of the property’s value). For the rating year starting 1 July 2024, this is $580. 
  • Targeted rates – are billed to each household for certain services or facilities that are available to the household.  These include sewerage, waste collection and water supply. 
  • General rates – general rates not recovered through the UAGC are set by dividing the remaining general rates required by the land value of the district's properties. Each property will pay its share based on its land value and the differential that applies to the property based on where it is located and the activity or use of the land. 

Summing up, everyone pays the UAGC, you pay for your waste collection, water services or any other services on a user basis, and the rest of your rates is your share of what is needed to run the district that is not covered by the previous two categories.  

You can pay your rates in several convenient ways. These are:

  • Online payment
  • Internet banking
  • In person by cash or EFTPOS
  • Credit card
  • Direct debit (rates and other payments by arrangement)

Council encourages you to make a payment online. Our payment options page provides more details about each option.   

Council sets its rates annually as part of the Annual Plan. If you have never heard about this big, bulky, rich-in-numbers document, it details what we intend to do over the coming financial year (1 July – 30 June) and how we are going to fund everything.  

This informs the rates we set for the coming year and provides some of the key information that makes up the Annual Plan.  

We also have a policy that defines which activities, such as maintaining our water supplies, are funded through which revenue streams. To put it in simple terms, this document describes how we are funding things, for example, building consents. Council activities such as these can either be financed through rates, paid for by fees and charges (like building consent fees) or a mix of both.  

Each year, our staff calculate the amount required to deliver services like safe drinking water, community facilities, and Council’s operational costs for the year ahead as part of the Draft Annual Plan. 

They then figure out how to fund this, mainly through rates, and calculate the proposed rates increase which will make sure Council has the money to pay for what is promised. Hence the rates increase in the Draft Annual Plan is an estimate. This estimate gets altered or signed off by Councillors, and once approved comes into effect on 1 July as part of the Annual Plan.  

The rates increase in the approved Annual Plan is what you will be notified about and defines how much you pay in rates for the next 12 months. 

The total rates increase for the district in the 2024-2025 Annual Plan was 14%. The overall increase for your property might be quite different, due to a number of factors.  

One reason is the three-yearly revaluation of properties. This was last undertaken by Quotable Value Limited in 2023 and changes the value of your property, which is the base used to calculate the general rates component.  

Another factor is which services (waste, water, etc.) your property is connected to, and which targeted rates you pay to use these services. If some targeted rates change, this will only impact the targeted rates component for properties that use those services. This shift in targeted rates will contribute to the total rates increase of your property. 

The Annual Plan (page 135 –136) contains examples of the actual increase in rates for different parts of the district to give you a better indication of what your rates increase will be for the coming financial year.  

Not everything is the same when it comes to rates. They really depend on which services you use and your land's value, and these factors determine by how much your rates increase. You will be notified of the exact amount and percentage in your rates notification in July. 

Setting of rates for the 2024/2025 financial year

Council must resolve annually to set and assess the rates described in the 2024-2025 (Rating) Funding Impact Statement.

This resolution must cover all of the rates, definitions and details included in the Funding Impact Statement. The Funding Impact Statement is included in the final and adopted Annual Plan.

Council must also resolve the due dates for rates and metered water, and how penalties will be applied to late payment.

Below is the Resolution of Council from the meeting held on Wednesday 26 June 2024.

RESOLVED that Council:

a) That the rates listed in the attached Schedule 1 (being those listed in the Funding Impact Statement of the 2024-2025 Annual Plan), as adopted at the Council meeting of 26 June 2024 are set under the Local Government (Rating) Act 2002 (“the Act”) on rating units in the district for the financial year commencing 1 July 2024 and ending on 30 June 2025.

(b) That each of the rates for the financial year are set under the following sections of the Act:

1. General Rates

1.1 General (differential) Land Rate – Section 13

1.2 Uniform Annual General Charge – Section 15

2. Water Supply Rates

2.1 Targeted Water Supply Rate(s) – Section 16 & Schedule 3

2.2 Metered water rate – Section 19

3. Sewage Disposal Rates

3.1 Targeted Sewage Disposal Rate(s) – Section 16 & Schedule 3

4. Waste Management Rates

4.1 Targeted Waste Management Rate(s) – Section 16 & Schedule 3

(c) That all rates will be payable in 4 instalments with the due dates being:

  1. Instalment 1 – 28 August 2024
  2. Instalment 2 – 28 November 2024
  3. Instalment 3 – 28 February 2025
  4. Instalment 4 – 28 May 2025

(d) That rates for metered water will be payable by the 20th day of the month following the invoice date, sic:

  1. July 2024 invoice – 20 August 2024
  2. August 2024 invoice – 20 September 2024
  3. September 2024 invoice – 20 October 2024
  4. October 2024 invoice – 20 November 2024
  5. November 2024 invoice – 20 December 2024
  6. December 2024 invoice – 20 January 2025
  7. January 2025 invoice – 20 February 2025
  8. February 2025 invoice – 20 March 2025
  9. March 2025 invoice – 20 April 2025
  10. April 2025 invoice – 20 May 2025
  11. May 2025 invoice – 20 June 20
  12. 12. June 2025 invoice – 20 July 2025

(e) That all unpaid rates will incur penalties on the penalty dates being:

  1. Instalment 1 – 28 August 2024
  2. Instalment 2 – 28 November 2024
  3. Instalment 3 – 28 February 2025
  4. Instalment 4 – 28 May 2025
  5. Any year’s rates struck prior to 1 July 2024 – 1 September 2024

(f) That all unpaid balance of metered water rates will incur penalties on the penalty dates being:

  1. July 2024 invoice – 21 August 202
  2. August 2024 invoice – 21 September 2024
  3. September 2024 invoice – 21 October 2024
  4. October 2024 invoice – 21 November 2024
  5. November 2024 invoice – 21 December 2024
  6. December 2024 invoice – 21 January 2025
  7. January 2025 invoice – 21 February 2025
  8. February 2025 invoice – 21 March 2025
  9. March 2025 invoice – 21 April 2025
  10. April 2025 invoice – 21 May 2025
  11. May 2025 invoice – 21 June 2025
  12. June 2025 invoice – 21 July 2025

(g) That Council apply the following penalties in terms of Sections 57 & 58 of the Act:

  1. On the penalty date a ten percent (10%) charge to be added to the balance of rates (excluding metered water rates) left owing of the instalment due on that date.
  2. A charge of five percent (5%) be added on 1 September 2024 to any balance owing from any year’s rates struck prior to 1 July 2024.
  3. On the 21st day of each month, a charge of 10% to be added to any balance of the metered water rates owing from that total amount invoiced in the previous month (as set out in Section (D) above).
  4. That rates shall be payable at Council’s main office, Brougham Street, Westport (open 8:30am-4:30pm, Monday to Friday), or the Visitor & Service Centre at 67-69 Broadway, Reefton (open 09:00am- 4:30pm), or by using on-line banking, or through direct credit, direct debit, or credit card.
You may also be interested in
handing over a document

Payment options
online survey at home

Pay online
house in westport

Rating valuations