Answers to your questions and terms you should know

This is the notice sent to property owners each rating year (1 July – 30 June) with the amount of rates you will be asked to pay on your property for the year and any changes to your payment schedule if you have one.

Your invoice (sent twice a year) lists the specific charges applied to your property – targeted rates, UAGC, urban waste and recycling collection, water rates. It includes any payments you have made or if a rebate has been applied, and the amount that needs to be paid in full by the due date.

A direct debit is a regular payment that’s approved by you and set up and managed by us at council. It means you can spread the cost of your rates across the whole rating year on a regular day that suits you (weekly, fortnightly, monthly or quarterly) rather than paying at each instalment due date. You don’t have to worry about penalties or due dates or calculate payment amounts yourself because we do this for you, no penalties or late fees apply.

An automatic payment is a regular payment that's set up and controlled by you through your bank for a set amount each time. Although you can manage the payments to suit you (for example weekly, fortnightly or monthly) if there is a change in your rates or you miss a payment, you will need to make the change in your automatic payment yourself or pay a top-up to ensure your invoice is paid in full by each time. Unlike direct debit, a penalty is charged on any outstanding balance after the due date.

A direct debit is a regular payment that’s approved by you and set up and managed by us at council.

An automatic payment is a regular payment that's set up and controlled by you (through your bank) for a set amount each time.

Both of these have the advantage of spreading the cost of your rates across the whole rating year on a regular day that suits you (weekly, fortnightly, monthly or quarterly) rather than paying at each instalment due date. This means those payments can align with the timing for income like wages or salary payments. It also means you can ‘set and forget’ your payments and they will continue.

The key difference is that when you enter a direct debit payment plan with council, under our Rates Remission and Postponement policy, we treat your rates as ‘postponed’ until the end of the rating year as long as you continue the direct debit payments. That means there are no penalties or overdue fees because the direct debit calculations mean your rates will be paid off by the end of the rating year.

Any other payment options, for example automatic payments, bank transfers, internet banking or cash, mean that your rates must be paid by the due date for each invoice. Unlike direct debit, a penalty is charged on any outstanding balance after the due date. That means, you need to keep a much closer eye on your rates notifications because if there is a change in your rates, or your calculations are slightly off for the invoice period, you may have an outstanding amount to pay before the due date.

If you don’t know which of these applies to you or you want to know more, please talk to our rates team on 07 315 3030.

In 2024, there were two changes to rates invoices. First, council moved from quarterly invoices to just two invoices each year. Many people took this opportunity to move rates payments to direct debit or automatic payment to spread out payments across the year and avoid bigger lump sum payments.

Second, our Long Term Plan was late that year because of significant changes required through the government's Local Water Done Well reforms. Council cannot collect rates until we have a current Long Term Plan and that needed to be re-drafted (with LWDW changes included), consulted, and adopted before the rates assessments and invoices could be sent.

2024 changes to rates explained (pdf)

Rates rises are a common topic across councils throughout Aotearoa each year. Each year, it costs all councils more to do less, central government changes are felt (such as Three Waters / Local Water Done Well), aging infrastructure, national and international trends and impacts - these all take a toll on rates.

Council's must produce a Long Term Plan which outlines expected costs and the impact on rates (usually a rates rise). That is an average figure so some properties would be higher and some lower.

Every three years Ōpōtiki District council has a legal requirement to value all properties in the district. Revaluation doesn't affect the total amount of rates collected by council, but it does help council work out everyone's share of rates, which is based partly on capital value. For example, if your property value has gone up by 30%, that doesn't mean your rates will also go up by 30%. The total amount of rates we require to run the district doesn't change because property values change. Rating values are just one component of how rates are assessed.

Read more about revaluation in the Ōpōtiki district.