Waitaki district councillors at their meeting yesterday were warned they could get complaints or questions from about 1200 mainly rural ratepayers because they would get multiple rates demands for the first time this quarter.
The reason is an upgrade of the council's computer system.
Financial services manager Paul Hope said that in the past under the council's old computer system, one bill was sent out to the owners of properties with separate rates listing on the rates roll but combined and used as one unit.
This applied mainly to rural properties, where separate titles may have been combined into an economic farming unit.
Waitaki was one of a very few councils able to send out a combined rates bill in the past.
However, changing to the new authority software meant the council had to follow most other councils, and combining the separate rating units into one bill for the ratepayer was now not possible.
Mr Hope said that would mean some ratepayers could get between two and up to 20 rates demands on each of the separate rates units for the first time.
Any more than five would be posted out in separate envelopes.
They might believe they were paying more rates than under a single bill. However, Mr Hope said that was not the case and, if all the rates demands were added up, they would be the same as a single bill.
There would also be only one uniform annual charge (a charge levied on a house to pay for some services), not multiple charges.
An information sheet would be sent out with multiple demands to explain the reason.
A letter would be sent to those who had rates paid by direct debit.
The first-quarter rates demands should be received by ratepayers within the next week, with a deadline of August 25 for payment.
