City of Stirling Budget Newsletter

Stay home and access services online!

The City has a range of online services and payment facilities available around the clock, 24/7. You can pay your rates, register pets, lodge development applications, book a range of on-demand services and much more from the comfort of your home. If you need any assistance to use our online services, please phone (08) 9205 8555 during business hours. For more information, visit www.stirling.wa.gov.au/onlineservices

Rates prize draw postponed this year Given the severe and sustained impacts of COVID-19 on the community, we know many households and businesses are doing it tough. Our immediate response has been to re-direct services and resources to support those most in need but we recognise the community recovery process may take months or years for some. As a result, the City will not be running a rates prize draw in 2020/21. We will instead focus our efforts and resources on minimising the impact for community members experiencing hardship due to the pandemic. We look forward to working in partnership with ratepayers and the community to navigate the recovery process together. In the meantime, remember to reach out to the City if you need support as we are here to help.

Gross Rental Value (GRV) update Your annual rates are calculated using a Gross Rental Value (GRV) for residential, commercial, industrial and vacant properties issued by the Valuer General’s Office. The yearly GRV estimates how much you could expect to receive if you were to rent out your property and it also allows for outgoings such as rates and other property expenses. The Valuer General (Landgate) provides updated GRV figures to the City of Stirling every three years. The Council then sets a ‘rate in the dollar’ figure to calculate your annual rates as a percentage of the assessed value of your property, i.e. GRV multiplied by rate in the dollar. This year is a revaluation year and the latest figures have shown a general trend that GRVs have fallen across the City. On average, the GRVs for Stirling have dropped by 13 per cent, but this has not been consistent across all suburbs. Some suburbs have fallen by only 4 per cent, while others have dropped by 21 per cent.

The fall in GRV has also varied depending on the property type

minimum rates for Strata Titled Storage Units and Parkland Villas units under 36m 2 in size. The table below shows differential and minimum rates for 2020/21. Rate in the $ amount Residential $0.056122 Commercial $0.052442 Industrial $0.057837 Vacant $0.068241 General Minimum Rate $853

with residential property GRVs falling much more than commercial property. As a result of this variation, the City has introduced differential rates for the first time this year – a different rate in the dollar will be charged depending on whether the property is residential, commercial, industrial or vacant. The differential rates in the dollar are higher than last year’s single rate to allow for the overall decrease in GRVs, but that will not result in paying higher rates this year. As the Council has committed to freezing rates for 2020/21, the City will issue a credit to your bill to allow for any changes in GRV that might increase your rates this year. Waste charges will reduce by $15 for residential ratepayers and this will be taken into account when calculating the credit. Vacant property owners will be required to apply for a credit if their rates have increased. All minimum payments will remain the same for 2020/21, including lower

Parkland Villas Retirement Village (apartments less than 36m 2 )

$805 $553

Strata Titled Storage Units

Property owners have the right to appeal their assessed property value with the Valuer General’s Office within 60 days of the issue of the rates notice. For any questions about your GRV, please phone Landgate on (08) 9273 7373 or visit the Landgate website www.landgate.wa.gov.au

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