Our main offices will be closed Easter Weekend. Refuse collection will not take place on Good Friday, 29 March. Areas, where refuse is collected on Fridays, will instead have collections on Saturday, 30 March. This affects the Te Teko, Edgecumbe, Poroporo and White Pine Bush areas. Refuse will be collected on all other days as normal.
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Remission on Undeveloped Sections

Remission of outstanding rates and penalties on:

  1. undeveloped sections, or;
  2. those rating units where the building(s) have been removed, or;
  3. where buildings are in a derelict state; and
    1. where those rating units are purchased by the owner(s) of a rating unit that is contiguous to or is separated from the rating unit in question only by a road, railway, drain, water race, river or stream; and
    2. the two rating units are used as one residential unit, or;
    3. where the rating units have been subject to a rating sale under Section 67 of the Local Government (Rating) Act 2002

1.0 Objective of the Policy

The objective of this Policy is to facilitate the purchase of vacant rating units (sections) by adjoining property owners to enhance the social and environmental well-being of the community and to facilitate the land being brought back into use so that it may contribute towards the rating revenues of the District in future years. 


2.0 Conditions and Criteria

2.1 The Council will postpone outstanding rates and outstanding rates penalties owing on a rating unit for a period of up to five years or until the purchaser of the rating unit applies for a building consent for the construction of a building on the rating unit, whichever comes first, as defined in the Whakatāne District Plan if:

  1. That rating unit is undeveloped, the building(s) have been removed or are in derelict state and the rating unit is purchased by the owner of adjoining property such that section 20 of the Local Government (Rating) Act 2002 is satisfied; or
  2. The rating unit has been the subject of a rating sale under section 67 of the Local Government (Rating) Act 2002 and such sale has produced insufficient funds to clear all of the rates and penalties owing, and, in either case.

3.0 Rates to be Remitted

3.1 After a period of five years from the date any such postponement comes into effect, and the rates payable from the rating unit continue to be paid in full for that rating unit for the same period, the Council may remit the postponed rates in full.


4.0 Delegation

The delegated authority for this policy is set out in the Delegations Register.