Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1698750990022.pdf (New Zealand)
Rates Rebate (Retirement Village Residents) Amendment Bill Member’s Bill Explanatory note General policy statement The rates rebate scheme was introduced in 1973 to allow ratepayers of residential properties who are on low incomes to receive a rebate on their rates.

This was before the expansion of retirement villages and occupation right agreements (ORAs).

Resi- dents of retirement villages with ORAs pay rates but, in most circumstances, pay in- directly (i.e.
to the retirement village owner) rather than directly to the local authority.

Under the Rates Rebate Act 1973, these residents are not entitled to a rates rebate.

It is this anomaly that this Bill addresses.

Some local authorities have changed their rating practice so that individual residents with ORAs are billed directly for their rates.

In these instances, the residents are en- titled to apply for a rates rebate.
This amendment would ensure that, regardless of the billing practice of the local authority, residents are recognised as paying rates, and are therefore entitled to apply for a rates rebate.

Clause 1 is the Title clause Clause by clause analysis Clause 2 provides that the Bill comes into force on the day after the date on which it receives the Royal assent.

Clause 3 provides that the Bill amends the Rates Rebate Act 1973 (the principal Act).
Clause 4 amends section 5 of the principal Act, by replacing the definition of ratepay- er with one that recognises as ratepayers not only those persons defined as ratepayers under the Local Government (Rating) Act 2002, but also those residents of retirement villages who pay rates, directly or indirectly, in connection with their occupation right agreements.
Clause 4 further amends section 5 of the principal Act by providing defi- 132—1 2 Rates Rebate (Retirement Village Residents) Amendment Bill Explanatory note nitions of terms, related to retirement villages, that are used in the replacement defin- ition of ratepayer.
Hon Ruth Dyson Rates Rebate (Retirement Village Residents) Amendment Bill Member’s Bill Contents 1 2 3 4 Title Commencement Principal Act Section 2 amended (Interpretation) The Parliament of New Zealand enacts as follows: Page 1 1 1 1 1 2 3 4 (1) Title This Act is the Rates Rebate (Retirement Village Residents) Amendment Act 2016.

Commencement This Act comes into force on the day after the date on which it receives the Royal assent.
Principal Act This Act amends the Rates Rebate Act 1973 (the principal Act).
Section 2 amended (Interpretation) In section 2(1), replace the definition of ratepayer with: ratepayer means a person who is 1 or both of the following: (a) a ratepayer within the meaning given to that term in section 11 of the Local Government (Rating) Act 2002: 5 10 132—1 1 cl 4 Rates Rebate (Retirement Village Residents) Amendment Bill (b) a resident of a retirement village who pays rates, directly or indirectly, in connection with an occupation right agreement with the operator of the retirement village (2) In section 2(1), insert in their appropriate alphabetical order: occupation right agreement has the same meaning as in section 5 of the Re- tirement Villages Act 2003 5 operator has the same meaning as in section 5 of the Retirement Villages Act 2003 resident has the same meaning as in section 5 of the Retirement Villages Act 2003 10 retirement village has the meaning specified in section 6 of the Retirement Villages Act 2003 Wellington, New Zealand: Published under the authority of the House of Representatives—2016 2