Information about rates
Want to pay your rates/water bill, apply for a refund or update how you receive bills? Our Do It Online portal makes it easier for you to complete any of your usual rates-related transactions and requests.
Rates are one of the Council's key revenue tools and help pay for the range of services and facilities we provide. They are a charge against a property and are made up of a variety of different types of rates for our variety of services.
Our rating system
Our rating system is capital value-based. This means the value of your property is used to calculate the percentage you pay for certain activities. It is not used to calculate your total rates.
There are two types of rates - a general rate and a targeted rate. Your rates account is made up of the following:
| • Uniform Annual General Charge and other uniform target rates |
| • Fixed targeted ward rates |
| • Valuation-based targeted rates |
| • Valuation-based general rates |
Merging properties for rating purposes
If you have bought a property in the Gore District that is beside a property you already own, you may be able to merge these properties for rating purposes. You can do this via our Do It Online portal.
The properties must meet the following criteria:
- They must have common ownership
- They must be contiguous (or separated only by a road, railway, drain or river)
- They must be used jointly as a single unit
Please Note: An application does not take effect until the following rating year. For example, an application to merge two properties made in December will not take effect until 1 July the following year.
Applying for a refund
If you have overpaid a rates account, a dog registration, a debtors or a water account, you can apply for a refund. You can do this via our Do It Online portal.
Rating Valuations
The Gore District rating values are updated every three years and are one of the factors councils use to assess rates. You can check a property's new valuation on the Rating Valuation Register. The new valuations are also available at QV.co.nz.
In setting the new rating value, QV uses a mass-appraisal process where similar and relevant property sales from Gore around the time of the revaluation, except mortgagee sales, are considered.
This process is supported by some valuation assessments of individual properties every year as a result of building consents, subdivisions, sales inspections, objections and ratepayer requests to update rating values.
A rating valuation should reflect the likely price a property would sell for, but does not include chattels, that is movable personal items such as curtains and appliances.
It is not designed to be used as a current market valuation, which can be provided to banks for use in raising finance or for other legal purposes. Current market valuations require an individual inspection of a property and full written report by a Registered Valuer.
Property owners have the right to object to their new rating value if they disagree with it. You can do this via our Do It Online portal.
