While Auckland Council is refusing to divulge how much van den Bogaart owes, he was ordered to pay $102,680.90 in unpaid rates and related costs in October 2022 after the council took him to court.
The amount owed is likely to have since grown significantly, from arrears and penalties.
This former chicken farm at 2 Logan Rd, Buckland will go under the hammer on September 2 in a forced High Court rating sale.
A Barfoot & Thompson “High Court sale” listing went live this morning. The property will be auctioned on September 2 if no compromise can be reached.
Auckland Council group chief financial officer Ross Tucker said it had been working for “some time” to resolve the debt with van den Bogaart.
“Unfortunately, we have been unable to reach an agreement.”
Proceeding to a rating sale was a last resort, Tucker said.
“No rates have been paid on the property since 2012 and the council is taking action now, as it needs to recover the unpaid rates.
Tucker said no payments or settlement offer had been received.
“The council never takes a rating sale lightly – we prefer to work with all property owners who are behind on rates and usually find a solution.”
Owner alleges ‘slush fund for Auckland City’
When the Herald spoke to van den Bogaart in 2020, he estimated he owed more than $50,000.
The then 62-year-old said his rates were unjustified and demanded to know what council services he received on the Pukekohe land before handing over money.
After the council launched legal action in 2017, van den Bogaart filed a counter-claim alleging negligence and breach of the Local Government Act.
Auckland Council applied to the High Court to forcibly sell the former chicken farm at 2 Logan Rd, Buckland after its owner failed to pay any rates in 14 years.
He demanded an “itemised breakdown” specifying what assets and services he received in exchange for his rates.
He argued the property did not have a house, rubbish collection or potable water supply, and the land had been rezoned by the council, undermining its value.
“It is not clear what council services, if any, are being provided to justify the rates allegedly to be paid,” a July 2019 statement said.
Six years ago, he told the Herald the property had been derelict for 10 years, used no council services and generated no income.
“There’s no house, no residence and nobody living on the property. I want to know what the property is being rated for.”
He was taking the stand for all ratepayers charged “unfairly” for non-existent council services.
“I’m not paying rates if it’s going into a slush fund for Auckland City.”
The 2.2ha property at 2 Logan Rd, Buckland has a 2024 CV of $2.2 million.
The case went to trial in September 2022 with a judgment issued against van den Bogaart in October that year. It found in the council’s favour, dismissing van den Bogaart’s counter-claim and ordering him to pay more than $100,000.
Tucker said no payment plan had been received so the council registered a charging order against the property in March last year and filed a rating sale application in September.
The High Court had now granted the application.
The council encouraged van den Bogaart to contact them and come to an arrangement over the rating debt before September 2. Otherwise, the sale would proceed.
Only third such case in super city history
This property in Raleigh Rd, Northcote was forcibly sold by Auckland Council in April over an unpaid rates bill of nearly $220,000.
If sold next month, the former poultry farm would be just the third property forcibly sold by Auckland Council over unpaid rates.
The last sale taken by the council was a North Shore home with an outstanding rates bill of more than $219,000.
The four-bedroom, two-bathroom, 200sq m townhouse went under the hammer in April this year after the council had unsuccessfully spent years trying to track down the owner – even hiring a private investigator.
The Northcote do-up in Raleigh Rd was in “poor condition” and featured monolithic cladding. It required a full renovation.
While its latest council valuation is $1.025m, it sold for $610,000.
Tucker said “exhaustive efforts” had been made to speak to the owner, Choi Wu, who is understood to be living overseas.
Charlotte Marsh at her former home in Manurewa before it was forcibly sold by Auckland Council following her refusal to pay $12,000 in rates. Photo / Dean Purcell
The other case was in 2015 when Charlotte Hareta Marsh lost her home after failing to pay rates for nine years.
Despite repeated warnings, she refused to recognise the authority of Auckland Council and claimed to have paid her rates instead to the “rightful land owner”, Arikinui o Tuhoe, a self-proclaimed sovereign authority.
Marsh owed more than $12,000 in rates and penalties at the time and nearly $3000 in court costs.
The late activist Penny Bright’s 11-year refusal to pay rates nearly cost her her Kingsland home in the months before her death.
The council went to court to have Bright’s home forcibly sold to recoup tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid rates and penalties, and it was listed for sale in April 2017.
But in May that year, a deal was struck after Bright applied for a rates postponement and the forced sale proceedings were halted.
Lane Nichols is Auckland desk editor and a senior journalist for the NZ Herald with more than 20 years’ experience in the industry.