31 Jul 2023
Leave to appeal was declined because the contested arguments were either fact dependent or lacked sufficient legal merit or general importance to meet the s 18A threshold; the Court must apply established rehearing principles and was not required to adopt an intermediate deferential standard.
19 Jul 2022
On a purposive reading of s 21 of the Rating Valuations Act 1998, valuers must disregard lease provisions or circumstances peculiar to the property that do not reflect prevailing market conditions and must have regard to preserving uniformity with contemporaneous roll values; accordingly the Tribunal erred in taking Glasgow leases into account and in making a five per cent deduction to freehold land values for rating purposes. Leasehold-specific provisions that are not reflective of the prevailing market are to be ignored in rating land valuations, and leasehold sales should not have been exc…
19 Jul 2022
The Tribunal's 2015 decision was set aside because it mis‑summarised expert evidence, relied on an improper indexing approach from an incorrect 2012 base, excluded a relevant post‑dated comparable (36 Tacy Street) without proper basis, and made unjustified size deductions to Bunnings' composite sites; the correct modal land rate for the exemplar 1,932m2 inside lot at 1 September 2015 is $920/m2, applied to individual certificates of title with summation for composite Bunnings sites and with specified adjustments to individual lots as detailed in the judgment.
1 Apr 2022
The Court granted leave to the Valuer-General to adduce further evidence because the affidavit was relevant, cogent and credible, addressed a material evidential gap raised by the Tribunal of its own motion, and special reasons and the interests of justice justified admission despite the evidence not being fresh.
25 Oct 2019
The application for a separate expedited hearing of the legal question was declined because the disputed statutory issue (interpretation of "land value" and s21) is not a discrete jurisdictional point separable from the valuation exercise; it is fact‑dependent and requires expert evidence and market context, the proposed process would cause delay and prejudice to sequentially scheduled tribunal hearings, and parties had agreed a timetable to resolve related objections. Leave to cross-appeal out of time was granted to Wellington International Airport because it is a "person affected" under s26…
14 Nov 2008
The Tribunal erred in refusing to make any deduction for the value of native trees despite statutory direction in s20 and the only valuation evidence addressing that issue; where comparable sales are sparse, a valuer's informed judgment to apportion value (even if subjective) must be considered and the matter was remitted for reconsideration in light of s20.
7 Mar 2005
The Land Valuation Tribunal exceeded its jurisdiction in declaring the 1998 valuation a nullity; validity challenges of the kind raised are for the High Court by judicial review, and the tribunal's proper remit is to value the assets de novo; accordingly the tribunal's invalidity finding was set aside and the objection was remitted to the tribunal to determine the correct valuation as at 1 September 1998.