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Speaker 1: Did you know that councils can recover your unpaid rates

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Speaker 1: if you choose not to pay them by tapping into

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Speaker 1: your mortgage. It turns out millions of dollars in unpaid

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Speaker 1: council rates were taken directly from property owners mortgages last year.

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Speaker 1: Sam Warren is the local government spokesperson for the Taxpayers

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Speaker 1: Union and with US. Hey, Sam, can you hear me? Sam?

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Speaker 2: I can can you hear me?

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Speaker 1: Yeah? I can hear you. Now did you know that

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Speaker 1: they could do this?

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Speaker 2: Look, it's a new piece of legislation to me, and

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Speaker 2: it's actually quite a little known. It's under the Local

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Speaker 2: Government Ratings Act where they can basically extract your mortgage

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Speaker 2: or you know, arrears. Sorry, your rates are reared through

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Speaker 2: your mortgage and not many people know that, but I

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Speaker 2: think All Can Council, for example, used it eight thousand

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Speaker 2: times last year alone. So there you go.

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Speaker 1: How do you feel about it?

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Speaker 2: Look, I mean a little split sometimes. I mean they

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Speaker 2: need their rates paid. But look, I think the biggest

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Speaker 2: issue for us is that it's happening in the first place.

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Speaker 2: Rates last year increased fifteen percent on average, you know,

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Speaker 2: up and down the country. I want to see a

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Speaker 2: lot more are done by counsels to reign in that

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Speaker 2: spending and get rates down as though as possible, so

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Speaker 2: this doesn't happen.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, totally. I mean now, the thing is they say

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Speaker 1: it's a last resort. You know, they do everything else

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Speaker 1: before they can do this. How long do you know

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Speaker 1: how long they leave or what does last resort mean?

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Speaker 1: I mean, how long do they leave it before they

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Speaker 1: tapp into your mortgage?

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Look, there's a number of letters, You'll be getting

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Speaker 2: a number of calls I'm thinking, and maybe even the

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Speaker 2: house visit. But look, this is a last result, thank goodness.

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Speaker 2: But you don't want to say far.

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Speaker 1: I thought that they waited until you died or sold

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Speaker 1: your problem before they claimed it.

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Speaker 2: No, not quite. There's a time Carriod. I think it's

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Speaker 2: within you know how many months. But basically, if they

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Speaker 2: can't get through to you and they find out you

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Speaker 2: owe a mortgage, they'll talk to your bank or a

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Speaker 2: mortgage provider and stack it on your rates, so you know,

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Speaker 2: and if you don't, obviously, they'll then pursue their own

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Speaker 2: debt collection and worse comes worse, they'll sell your house,

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Speaker 2: which happens rarely, but it does happen.

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Speaker 1: Sam, I feel so conflicted about this because obviously I

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Speaker 1: pay my rates, so I want everybody to pay their rates.

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Speaker 1: But I also understand if somebody doesn't want to pay

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Speaker 1: their rates because suck. Right, there's just so much waste

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Speaker 1: there is this. Is this a problem? Is this a

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Speaker 1: modern day problem with the bloating of the public service,

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Speaker 1: or is this just something we will always have as

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Speaker 1: long as we have to, as long as we're compelled

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Speaker 1: to give our money to something like this.

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Speaker 2: Look, I hope for the best. It's just that last year,

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Speaker 2: for example, that like I say, fifteen percent rate increases,

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Speaker 2: it's cited as one of the biggest contributions to the

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Speaker 2: cost of living. So we're really strong on something called

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Speaker 2: rates capping laws that would actually limit how high your

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Speaker 2: rates can be increased, and hopefully they would keep all

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Speaker 2: these areas down. Councils. You know, I spend a career

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Speaker 2: uncovering council waste all my goodness, it's endless. So look,

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Speaker 2: I really want to see.

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Speaker 1: Strong we've come across.

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Speaker 2: Oh, Heather, give me your worst. I'll give you a

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Speaker 2: recent one. How's that okay? It's was it a five

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Speaker 2: hundred and sixty thousand dollars Rainbow machine from Auckland Council.

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Speaker 2: It's a sculpture that you might have seen up and

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Speaker 2: down the place, but that's machine.

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Speaker 1: What does it make rainbows?

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Speaker 2: It refracts light. Yeah, it's an interactive art sculpture. But

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Speaker 2: like I say, it's I don't think that's core council spinning,

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Speaker 2: particularly when everyone's doing so rough at the moment. So

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Speaker 2: I really would like to see counsel really stick to

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Speaker 2: the basics. I'm talking about rubbish roads, pipes, that sort

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Speaker 2: of thing, and leave the artwork. I mean it's tough,

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Speaker 2: I know, but look it's just tough.

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Speaker 1: It is tough. Sam, thank you, I appreciate it.

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Speaker 2: Man.

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Speaker 1: That's Sam Warren, local government spokesperson at the Taxpayers Union.

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Speaker 1: For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to

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Speaker 1: news talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow

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Speaker 1: the podcast on iHeartRadio.