Australian Property News

Waterfront property owners fight fees

Posted on Monday, September 20 2010 at 3:12 PM

Sydney waterfront property owners are threatening not to pay rising rents charged by the New South Wales Government for jetties, boatsheds and slipways, the Sydney Morning Herald has reported.

The owners’ threats follow the NSW Government’s failure to overhaul the way the levies are assessed.

For Hunters Hill widow Luba Levansky, 82, the continued rise in waterfront rental charges without explanation or discussion has gone too far.

''It's increased tremendously, and they don't give you a choice: either pay the higher charges or they will destroy the wharf and send you the bill. It was $300 a year and it is now $400 for three months,'' she told the Herald. ''They're just a law unto themselves.''

The newspaper reported that about 1450 leases exist, and that NSW Maritime has said it intends replacing all with new standard leases by the end of the year.

The new leases lock in the rental calculations which were challenged by the Auditor-General in last year's report.

The Auditor-General called for the government to renegotiate the way it sets the levy on households with waterfront jetties a year ago. The government has yet to do so.

''The Land and Property Management Authority and NSW Maritime engaged an external consultant in November 2009 to review the rate of return and the 50 per cent discount factor in response to the recommendations of the audit report,'' said Anna Burns, a spokeswoman for the Treasurer, Eric Roozendaal.

She said the matter was still under consideration.

Levansky, like several other owners of waterfront properties, has spent considerable sums over the years improving the waterfront part of their property, for which they are now being taxed by the government.

Levies for some properties have risen 11-fold since 2004, after a lengthy period when the rents were unchanged, reported the Herald.