Rates FAQs

All property owners within the local government area are required to pay their current quarterly rates.

However, Council has hardship provisions in place for property owners experiencing hardship due to COVID-19 including interest free payment plans and deferral of rate instalments.

For more information on Council's COVID-19 hardship provisions see here.

Rates increase each financial year by the amount determined by IPART as the increase in rates for all Councils across NSW. This is known as the ‘rate peg’. 

The rate peg for 2021/22 is 2.0%.

This year, your domestic waste management charge for 2021/22 has remained unchanged from 2020/21, however there are small increases to some of the other garbage services and Hunter Local Land Services. 

Some properties have been charged the On Site Sewage Management Annual Admin Charge of $125.00.

If you have received a sizeable increase of your rates notice, it may be due to rezoning of the land or a new or additional garbage service. 

A pensioner rebate of $250 per annum is available for eligible ratepayers. 

This will show separately on your rates notice.

If you are not sure if you've received the pension rebate, please email [email protected].

To be eligible for the rebate you will need to be a:

• Holder of a Pensioner Concession Card.
• Holder of a gold card embossed with TPI (totally permanently incapacitated).
• Holder of a gold card embossed with EDA (extreme disablement adjustment).
• War widow or widower or wholly dependent partner to the Pension Concession Card.

To apply for the rebate, you will need to complete and submit the pensioner concession rebate form.

There are different levies and charges that make up your rates notice, including your waste management charge, as well as a contribution to stormwater management and Hunter Local Land Services.

These different items are divided over four instalments, with the first instalment including the roundings from the remaining instalments. The first instalment also includes any amount you have outstanding from last financial year.

HLLS Hunter Catchment Contributions are derived from a levy on all rateable land valued in excess of $300 within the Hunter catchment.

These contributions are invested in projects in the Hunter catchment and cannot be spent outside the Hunter catchment. They provide a coordinated approach to the extensive problems of natural resource conservation in the Hunter Valley catchment and to undertake flood mitigation work. The levy enables Hunter Local Land Services to meet its legislative obligations under the Water Management Act 2000, as well as meeting resource condition and management targets in the Hunter LLS Local Strategic Plan.

The contributions are now collected via local government authorities within the Hunter who collect catchment contributions on behalf of HLLS. This is why you will see a “Catchment Levy” (or similar) line item on your council rates notice.

Urbanisation has significantly increased the volume of pollutant load in stormwater, flowing into urban waterways. These flows lead to waterway pollution as well as flooding in some areas. To help Council manage these stormwater issues, the Local Government Act 1993 was amended in 2005 to allow the levying of an annual stormwater management service charge.

The purpose of the charge is to help Council fund new or additional stormwater management activities across the Local Government Area, it is not property specific. These activities may include stormwater pollution prevention, flood mitigation, rainwater and stormwater harvesting, community education programs and stormwater drainage systems operations and maintenance.   

Further details of the programmed expenditure of the funds may be obtained from Council’s Management Plan.

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