Moreton Bay Council Rates

Hi! I recently bought a house for investment purposes in Rothwell. It’s time to pay the rates and I found out that the council rates are more for IPs than for OOs. This reeks of cash grabbing to me. My property manager said that other landlords have managed to get OO rate for their IP. I tried and failed. Has anyone here been successful in getting the OO rate, if so how did you do it? Thanks!

 

Just think about the growth moving forward you wont be worried about the extra cost!

What is the extra cost btw?

I suppose some people declare to council they are living in the property. That's hard to do now if you have already declared that it was a rental?

 

Hi My House - it’s a 25% increase on what OO pay. Yes thinking about future returns is positive but don’t like feeling like I am being ripped off

 

I agree Wyllie, I would not feel comfortable being dishonest even if I am annoyed at the council

 

Most of the councils in QLD charge extra if its an investment property, occurs in some other areas too, as it changes the rates class category, probably should have done some better due diligence on your outgoings so you didn't get a surprise.

Most of the time you will fill out a form declaring that you live in the property as your residence and the rates notice will be sent to that address (might be less of an issue now that you can get them fully online).

 

This is QLD, rates are a rip in many places and they all seem to do the "pay more if your a filthy rich investor".

It should be illegal, but maybe it is all the renters in some areas where 20 of them live in a house, so someone has to pay for that

 

It’s a money grab no doubt .. I wonder what REIQ has to say about this, I am sure they are aware of this.

 

How is it relevant to REIQ they have no power on individual council matters?

 

They are a professional advocacy body for real estate in QLD .. they have successfully stood up for landlords a lot of times including blocking some of the crazy rental reforms put forth by Greens.

 

I'm aware of who they are but I cant see how they have tangible bargaining power against the dozens of individual councils in the state or would even look to go down this path, State level is a different story

 

I've tried to fight this battle for years and Margaret Lomas, myself and a few others went hard at Brisbane City Council back in about 2015. Their reasoning? Rates are a tax deduction for investors. This is obviously completely absurd and insulting. One's tax position should have no bearing on the price they pay for something any more than thousands of different items that are deductions for some industries and not for others aren't subject to differential pricing.

They didn't want to know, didn't care and there wasn't enough political pressure to make them change. Another case of "shut up rich property investor". It's still something that bugs me to this day, but I've learned to live with it for my properties in Qld. Multiple councils do it and its disgusting.

- Andrew

 

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Where did you hear that it’s 25% extra?

Looking at Moreton Bay Council’s Revenue Statement for 2021/22 (pasted below) it looks like a much smaller increase to me: 52 cents in the dollar compared to 42 cents in the dollar.

Or were you using something else as a reference?


https://www.moretonbay.qld.gov.au/f...-2021-22/budget-2021-22-revenue-statement.pdf

 

It matters little how much extra it is, we pay the taxes and rent out to other human beings (hopefully), there is little reason to discriminate.

At times, the tenants may be doing far better than the LL, you cannot eat the equity, but then they do not care about that, darn QLD is a flop IMO, finally after a decade or so it is starting to do something, but I cannot wait to cut and run and the way the state govt has played the covid thing, well, they can all have it to themselves.

Clearly it is not popular to discriminate like that, and, that is all it is, one day someone like a Clive Palmer will decide to go down that route and give them some what for in a legal challenge.

 

Well, I still have one that is a noose around my neck till this day & it is in a good spot, within BCC, only just, maybe, by a whisker, you might be positive, but you would have had to bought long ago....

Tax deduction ..... lol..... they also charge enormous amounts for water and rates in many QLD places, NSW often was far less yet far better cap gain near everywhere, not just the city, and near everywhere costs less, Sydney is far less in many places.

The water is another one I laugh at, they are awash with it Yet sting you for it.

You can clearly see why some states do better, they are simply better for business.

 

Hi @Joynz.

Yes, the difference between $400 and $500 per quarter is 25%. Find 25% of 1049, add it on and the result is 1311.

I own my PPOR and (until recently) an IP, both in Moreton Bay. They are in very similar suburbs and are the same land size. The rates charged for the IP have always been 25% higher than the rates for the owner-occupied property. The state govt also charges landlords the Emergency Services Levy (through the rates invoice), to benefit the people who live in our IP.

It gets worse - A couple of years back the cash-grabbing council ruled that the rates for all units/townhouses and apartments in the Redcliffe area will not be based on the size of their land but on a minimum sale market value that assumes every unit is a modern boutique apartment near the waterfront worth at the very minimum $500k (back then - try $700k today). The dollar-value rates we are charged for our untrendy townhouse that is worth about $400k are the same as the big family home at North Lakes which is worth a lot more than $500k. There is no way to protest because on the whole, the people who own these older "un-trendy" and non-boutique units are mostly old pensioners who dont have any voting clout. I've been looking for an excuse to rant about this for the last two years

 

They've represented LL's when they made these last lot of new laws, even though they were ill prepared and got shot down in flames, they came across a lot better than the other jokers they had represent us. This is what totally jerks my cord about this industry, there's no decent representation, it's the same old story of punishing the LL for having a little extra pocket money.

Parliament.TV - Queensland Parliament

 

An increase from 42 to 52 is 24%….

 

As an investor that pays these rates in the Moreton Bay Region I will be somewhat annoyed if you don't pay what you are required to.

 

Yeah should instead have a poll tax.
Every person pays say $10k per year and have no residential rates or commercial rates or stamp duty or land tax.