Objecting to council rates if not owner??

Hi all,

I have just purchased a property (settlement to occur in late November), and when looking at the s32 feel that the last council valuation is significantly overvalued based on comparable sales etc. Am I able to object despite not being the owner (yet)? This is in Brimbank council in Victoria by the way.

The reason I want to do it now rather than at settlement is I believe you only have 60 days from the issuance of the rates notice, which will have lapsed by the time i become the owner in November.

The $ value it will hurt me if I don't dispute is about $500 from council rates for the year and $1000 - 1500 from a land tax perspective.

Cheers

 

So what did you pay for the property ?
Buyers remorse maybe ?

 

Council sets rates based on the valuation provided by the state valuation office as at 30/06 or 31/12 each year (it may vary on a state by state basis). The horse may have bolted

 

Hardly - I'm happy with the price I paid for it. The council valuation is $150K higher as at Jan 2019, which given the way the Vic property market was at the time, is very unlikely. I think the owner was quite unsophisticated, so didn't know/care about the valuation, and just paid it regardless.

 

You cannot objection to a rates notice. You can however object to the valuer generals land valuation which it is based upon. However its possible you are out of time as valuations have a time period for objection that is often short. Only the land owner can object. What was the date of that valuation ?? Its possible values have since fallen.

Given the future valuation may be less than the present you should wait until you become a owner and then when a new valuation is given, object to that. Valuation is often made each two years.

 

You get two bites of the cherry in Vic. If you've missed the window to object to the valuation in your rates notice you can object to the valuation again when you get your land tax assessment.

01/01/19 valuations in Vic are inflated IMHO and haven't taken into account the price drops from 2017-2018.

 

spot on, I actually disputed my rates last year for my other property in this council area and compromised with the valuer. He then said they would definitely be lower this year, and instead there up about 15%! Clearly Council/Vic Govt are desperate for revenue raising, but I wonder if this is becoming an issue for more Vic property investors?

 

The calculation of rates is a bit more complicated than just going up when the value goes up and going down when the value goes down.

It is also affected by whether your house has increased or decreased more or less than the average of other houses in the municipality.

 

Depends on the state, not in vic