B&B owner sounds warning

Lisburn House owner Olivia Richmond-Johnston, of Dunedin, addresses councillors during yesterday...
Lisburn House owner Olivia Richmond-Johnston, of Dunedin, addresses councillors during yesterday's Dunedin City Council annual plan hearing. Mrs Richmond-Johnston fears rating reclassifications targeting bed and breakfast owners could be applied to anyone working from home. Photo by Craig Baxter.
Child minders, web designers and anyone else working from home could also face overnight hikes in their rates bills, if they - like bed and breakfast owners - suddenly found their rating classifications had been changed, Dunedin city councillors have heard.

The warning came from Lisburn House bed and breakfast owner Olivia Richmond-Johnston, of Dunedin, during the third day of annual plan hearings yesterday.

Mrs Richmond-Johnston said she and her husband, Alan, were facing the loss of their business, after learning a change in Quotable Value's classification of their property's rates, from residential to commercial, meant their council rates bill had jumped "overnight" from $3600 to $9000.

That was despite the small scale of their business, which had just three bedrooms and five dining tables in a small restaurant, she said.

Mrs Richmond-Johnston said the change had come as a shock, but so, too, had comments to her from QV staff.

She had been told by QV staff they believed anyone obtaining a commercial benefit from operations at home should be targeted in the same way as B&B establishments.

The change in council rates focused on five houses of significance in Dunedin being run as B&Bs, but ignored other home-based industries and even smaller B&Bs, she told councillors yesterday.

That included sales people, child minders, web designers, hairdressers, beauticians, osteopaths, jade manufacturers, electricians - if their businesses were based at home - and even rental properties run as businesses, she said.

"Why stop at our industry? Why not target anyone who works from home?" she said.

She urged councillors to reconsider the changes, or at least consider phasing in the hikes over several years to allow operators time to budget for the extra cost.

Her business notified their rates to tourism operators two years in advance, and "we didn't have time to budget for this".

Many B&B operators had already decided to close as a result of the charges, hurting the city's accommodation sector, she said.

"Talking to people in the B&B industry a lot of them have decided not to operate anymore.

"We may have the stadium but there's going to be nowhere for anyone to stay.

"Alan and I have come here today to fight for our livelihood, because if this increase goes ahead we will lose Lisburn House."

Quotable Value representatives will be attending Monday's council annual plan deliberations to discuss the rating changes with councillors.

- chris.morris@odt.co.nz

 

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