Rates information

The City of Wanneroo has committed to a 0% increase on rates revenue for 2020/21. This means that 99.25% of all residential ‘improved’ and 95 per cent of commercial/industrial ‘improved’ ratepayers will pay the same or less in rates charges compared to last year. This has been made possible by applying a one-off COVID-19 concession to 2020/21 rates charges.

As a growth council, community investment is essential to deliver new, and maintain existing, facilities, services and infrastructure.

Rates make up around 69% of the income received by the City of Wanneroo and not having that income would severely limit what the City is able to deliver for the community.

Abolishing rates would mean significant delays or deferrals to projects such as road upgrades, new playground equipment or footpath repairs. It could mean shorter opening hours at libraries and youth centres, parks being mowed less often, or delays in beach renourishment works.

Any or all of these would have a significant impact on the community as well as having budget implications in future years - even if some projects can be delayed for one year, they cannot be delayed indefinitely and the funds will need to be found in future budgets.

The City of Wanneroo is using reserves to help make up the shortfall in rates revenue collected. Reserve funds will go toward COVID-19 recovery and relief and the City’s Capital Works and operational budgets.

Capital works invest in and stimulate the local economy and help generate new jobs.

Yes. The revaluation cycle is set by the State Government (Landgate) and despite requests from the City of Wanneroo and other local governments to delay, Landgate has advised they will continue with revaluations this year.

City of Wanneroo properties were last valued in August 2015, with those valuations first applied to rates in the 2017/18 financial year. As it is a three-year cycle, new valuations will be applied to rates for the 2020/21 financial year.

More information on property valuations is available on the Landgate website.

Not necessarily. Property valuations - Gross Rental Values (GRVs) and Unimproved Values (UVs) - are not directly linked to movements in the property market, only the value of your property in comparison with your neighbours. For example, someone with a two-bedroom home will pay a lesser share of rates than their neighbour with four bedrooms.

Capping the rate in the dollar reduces the rates income available to the City and has a flow-on effect to the services and facilities that are available to the community. As you can see from the example in the table below, capping the rate in the dollar with a fall in the GRV means a significant reduction in the rates income.

Changes to the total GRV for the City of Wanneroo are not uniform across properties in the City – even if all property values go down, they will not all go down by the same percentage. As such the impact on individual properties varies, as does the effect on the rates. Capping the rate in the dollar does not result in the rates burden continuing to be fairly distributed across households and disproportionately benefits those who are least affected.

Stopping capital works would be short-sighted. As a growth council, the City of Wanneroo also has a responsibility to deliver new community facilities and infrastructure for a growing population. Capital works projects stimulate our economy and help create local jobs.

Go to our online payments page to pay online.

Yes - please complete our rates payment arrangement form to request an arrangement.

GRV is the fair rental value your property might reasonably be expected to earn annually if it were rented. When determining GRV of a residential property, the Valuer General (Landgate) consider several attributes and constraints including location, age, building area and construction materials, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and number of car shelters (garages/carports).

To find out more about GRV, visit landgate.wa.gov.au

This is not a new charge.

In light of increased costs to local landfill disposal in Western Australia, waste levy charges have been extracted from general rates to provide greater transparency of the cost of waste management and to ensure that waste costs are fully recovered, eliminating the need to subsidise this service through reductions in other projects or programs in the City. 

GST is not payable on general rates, Waste Service charges, the Emergency Services Levy or the Pool Fence Inspection fee.

The Emergency Services Levy (ESL) fee amount is not imposed by the City. It is set by the Department of Fire and Emergency Services and funds Western Australia’s fire and emergency services, including Career and Volunteer Fire & Rescue Service brigades.

ESL charges are calculated based on numerous factors including the ESL category your property falls under and your property's Gross Rental Value (GVR) or Unimproved Value (UV).

The City collects these funds on behalf of DFES through its annual Rates notice and passes on all ESL money collected to DFES in full.

If the exact amount of the rates first instalment was not paid in full (in one transaction) by the due date, then the owner will not have automatically been placed on the instalment option.  Please complete our rates payment arrangement form to request to pay by the four instalment option.

Yes, the instalment options and any additional charges are detailed on the front of your rates notice.

Instalment options include an administration charge of $5 for instalments two, three, four and five, and a lost potential interest rate of 3% pa.

Failure to make either the third, fourth or fifth payment by the due date will result in Council revoking your right to pay the balance of your rates by instalments and the remaining balance will then be due.

Any amounts outstanding after the due date may be recovered by legal action.

PLEASE NOTE: Any legal action undertaken by Council will result in additional expenses being incurred by the ratepayer.

Eligible pensioners are exempt from additional charges on their rebate portion only. The rebate is funded by the Government of Western Australia.

The City offers the opportunity to make a payment arrangement. Payments can be made on an agreed weekly, fortnightly or monthly basis.

• Complete the City's online Rates payment arrangement application or;
• Contact Rating Services on 9405 5000

Note: All payment arrangements are subject to interest and administration fees which are determined by Sections 6.49 and 6.51 of the Local Government Act 1995.

Landgate’s valuation service has conducted a general valuation of the gross rental values (GRV’s) of properties within the City of Wanneroo. This is in accordance with the Valuation of Land Act 1978 and is conducted every three years. The new GRV’s are effective 1 July 2020 and apply to the Rates and Emergency Services Levy. The volatility in Perth’s rental market over the past few years has caused significant movement in some GRV assessments.

Your valuation (GRV or UV) is only one factor used to calculate your rates notice. The Valuation of Land Act 1978 (as amended) Part IV sets out the manner in which valuation objections and appeals may be lodged. A property owner may lodge an objection against the valuation of a property within 60 days of the date of issue of a rate notice.

For information on how your values are calculated and how to lodge an objection, please visit Landgate’s website landgate.wa.gov.au/valuations, or alternatively call Landgate Customer Service on +61 (0)8 9273 7373.

Section 6.76 of the Local Government Act 1995 provides the grounds, time and the way individual objections and appeals to the Rates Record may be lodged. An objection to the Rate Book must be made in writing to the council within 42 days of the date of issue of a rates notice.

Section 6.81 of the Local Government Act 1995 refers that rates assessments are required to be paid by the due date, irrespective of whether an objection or appeal has been lodged. In the event of a successful objection or appeal, the rates will be adjusted, and you will be advised accordingly. Credit balances may be refunded on request.

Yes, rates must be paid as assessed by the due date irrespective of whether an objection has been lodged. Any reduction in rates as a result of a successful objection will be refunded. Interest shall begin to accrue on rates if they are not paid in full. The City will charge daily interest of 5% per annum on overdue amounts of general rates, service charges and legal fees outstanding, and daily interest of 8% per annum on overdue amounts of Emergency Services Levy (ESL).

It is the responsibility of the owner to advise Rating Services when a change of address takes place, which would prevent the effective service of the Rates Notice.

Please notify Council of your change of residential and/or mailing address by completing the form below.

• Change of address form

Under the provisions of Section 9.68 of the Local Government Act 1995, written notice must be given to the City within 21 days, whenever any person sells or otherwise disposes of any rateable land. Details of the description of the land and then name and address of the purchaser must be stated. 

Please notify Council of any changes to ownership of your property in writing if you have not engaged a Settlement Agent/Conveyancer to effect the sale or disposal of your property.

• Contact us via our online form; or
• Send a letter to City of Wanneroo, Locked Bag 1, WANNEROO WA 6946; or
• Hand deliver a letter:
  - Civic Centre, 23 Dundebar Rd, Wanneroo. Mon-Fri between 8:30am and 5pm
  - Clarkson Library, 27 Ocean Keys Bvd, Clarkson. Mon-Fri between 9am and noon & 12:45pm and 5pm

If you require a copy of your rates notice you can request it.

Current years rates notices are free of charge, however if you require a previous years rates notice, there is an admin charge of $26 per notice.

Please note: if you require figures for tax purposes, we can provide these over the phone.

• Request a copy of your rates notice