20200510
The Far North District Council has notified an intention to increase the fee for senior citizen Ratepayers, wanting to apply for a Rates Postponement. This is a nationally coordinated scheme to defer paying Rates till move out and sell home, or deceased state settles.
The FNDC had been charging $50 per application, and now wants to charge $300.
They calculate it takes one Full Time Employee about 4 hrs handling one application, at a cost to the organisation of $50/hr, and Land Information NZ charges $175 for its part, adding a caveat to the title in its property information database.
The LINZ part of the fee can be charged at time of settling and doesn’t have to be paid for upfront.
The 4 hours staff time looks very slow (lacks oomph in productivity)!