Ross Tucker: Auckland Council Group chief financial officer on the blunders taking place in latest rates calculations

Some Auckland ratepayers have been getting nasty surprises when opening their newest bills for the year.

The Herald has identified a number of properties who've been overcharged, including a $3.9 million multi-unit property with an incorrect $444,766 - 11.4 percent - rates bill.

Auckland Council Group chief financial officer Ross Tucker says they process the rates bills for a huge volume of properties in Auckland.

"The best information we've got is - we think it's quite isolated...the four properties where there's been some issues are not just a single property, single house, it's ones where there's multi-units. That's one rates bill that covers multiple units."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you're in Auckland, you might want to double check
your rate spill. The Heralds had to look at it.
They've identified a number of properties in Auckland where rates
are completely wrong. One of the worst examples is a
three point nine million dollar property which had a rate
spill come through of four hundred and forty four thousand dollars.
That was obviously wrong. That's been revised down to fourteen
thousand dollars. Ross Tucker is Auckland Council's Group chief financial officer.

(00:24):
Hi Ross hi Ross, how did you guys send out
a rating bill for four hundred and forty four thousand dollars?

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Well, obviously that one was a mistake. So we are
currently in the process of no.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
No, no hold on. Before we move on, I want
to know how did it happen? Does nobody double check?
Is it AI doing it? Nobody double checks it?

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Or the long complex process so that the process is
all about doing the rating valuation. So every three years
we do rating valuations. At the long complex process, we've
got to do revised rating valuations for six hundred stud.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
We know how this works. We'll all own properties. How
did you guys send out had an email for four
four four zero zero zero. Did nobody look at it
and go that's a bit high?

Speaker 2 (01:06):
Well, we kind of look at all them, but we
don't have one person sitting down and looking through six
hundred and thirty thousand individual one so a huge volume possumular.
But what we're seeing is we we've looked at the
ones that have been raised. We've identified there's four properties
out of six hundred and thirty thousand, four properties that
identified areas, are you sure well we've had a good
look at it. We haven't identified we've had Is there

(01:29):
any systematic errors? Are are there problems that are that
are quite bored? Or are are they isolated? And the
best information we've got is we think it's quite isolated.
What these ones relate to if I can just explain
the context of these these are the four properties that
where there's been some issues. Are not just a single property,
single house. It's ones where there's multi units, so there's

(01:50):
one rate to call that covers multiple units. And where
the era has happened is it's the wrong number of
charges so instead of getting you know, instead of ten units,
it's thirty or something like that. So it's the number
of charges for the waste charges or the per unit.
So if anyone sees the rates of ball and it's
got the wrong number, that's in more than how.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
Did that happen? How does that make sense with the
one that's three point nine million, because it went from
four hundred and forty four thousand dollars down to fourteen thousand,
which is thirty one point seven one four two eight
five seven times less. So how did how many units?
What happened?

Speaker 2 (02:26):
I don't don't have all the details of funding, but
it was something like it should have been fourteen units
and it was forty four units or something like that. Oh,
I see a better order manage it. It's completely the
wrong number of units. Someone somehow, maybe it's human era
it maybe some processing in data translation, but it's something
the wrong number of unit. Yeah, and then that just
drives a change. So the rates and the dollars charges
that the prices are right, but it's a quantity of

(02:47):
the number of units was wrong in those cases.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
What's happened with the Herald do is they can only
pack up the really big mistakes. They can't pack up
the really small mistakes. So presumably you guys have to
run across everything and just make sure that there are
no mistakes. Is how it would work. Are you planning
to do that?

Speaker 2 (03:02):
That's right, so we know we have been doing that.
We're doing more of that and the team's worked really
hard this week to double triple check as much things
as they can. But I've been doing it so far.
They haven't spotted any other eras you can never be underpprential.
But we're doing the best we can to defined and
do it. It is six hundred and fifty thousand properties,
it's a lot of it. It's a big complex exercise.

(03:23):
But today lots of checking and no further so we've
all got.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
The rates bill has landed now in boxes or our
letter boxes whatever last week or thereabout. If we want
to double check it ourselves, is there a simple calculation
that we can do, just to be sure.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
To brief me A complex I guess calculation how it
all works. I guess you can go on the website
and look at the rates and the dollar, but the
keep it in terms of the errors that we've seen,
it's about those number the number of units. So if
you've just got a single property, if you've seen more
than one charge. If you're seeing three or four rubbish
collections or three or four numbersses three times this or

(04:01):
four times this, then that could be a mistake. So
we don't think it's very many of those. Hypothetically, if
you're starting this in multiple charges, that could be an
indication that that era has occurred. So that would be
the key thing to look at jug your other things
to look at the valuation notices that have gone out previously.
Is at the right rating valuation been applied, No reason
to think that it might not be. But it's functioning

(04:22):
of the rates and the dollar All of those charges
that are published on website applied to the property, the
number of units and the value of that property.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
Right, Ross, thank you so much, appreciate your time. Ross
Tucker Group, Group Chief Financial Officer at all Con Council.
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