Robin Baird, of Waihola, is standing firm and next week faces his third court appearance as both he and the council try to resolve their legal differences.
The council recently obtained new rental valuations for cribs occupying council land at Toko Mouth, Chrystalls and Akatore, which will result in gradual rent increases for up to 50 crib owners over the next three years.
Mr Baird and several others have no formal leases in place but have been paying a peppercorn rental and rates demands.
But Mr Baird believes the council is trying to impose statute law - from the Local Government Act - when the issue at stake is one of common law.
His modest two-bedroom crib sits on about 500sq m of land at the back of the settlement's domain. It has been in the family since the 1960s and Mr Baird spent the first few years of his life living there.
No formal lease ever existed between the Baird family and the farmer who once owned the land or the former Bruce County Council, which bought it and nearby land in the 1960s.
Until 2005, Mr Baird and others had paid annual rent of $40 and rates to the council of about $270.
Then three years ago, Mr Baird said the Clutha council, ‘‘with the stroke of a pen'', increased his annual rent to $400 and rates climbed gradually to about the same figure.
The latest rent review, just approved, will lift his annual rent to $750 and eventually up to $1125 over the next three years.
A letter from the council, in response to an Official Information Act request from Mr Baird, confirmed there were no formal lease arrangements in place for his crib although it and others were sitting on council land.
Later letters from the council have warned Mr Baird he could be asked to leave the council land if he refuses to pay the increased rent and rates demands.
At his first two court appearances, where the issue is being handled as a civil matter, Mr Baird has declined to submit his defence because he believes a common law matter is being handled as a statute law issue.
Mr Baird believes the council has no justification for any rent increase and is concerned if he does pay what is being asked of him, that further increases are inevitable.
‘‘This is just the thin end of the wedge,'' he said.
But council chief executive Charles Hakkaart said Mr Baird's crib and others were occupying road reserve and no formal lease could be set up.
But they were on ‘‘prime coastal land'' and would have to pay market rents if they were on land owned by anyone else.
‘‘We manage that land on behalf of the ratepayers and it is in the best interests of the ratepayers to get the best value out of that.''
The crib owners had been paying well below market rentals for many years and it was the council's responsibility to get fair market rents to help keep rates down across the district.
He declined to comment further as the matter was before the courts but Mr Hakkaart hoped the matter could be resolved without having to ask Mr Baird to leave his crib.
