Van den Bogaart is understood to have issued a letter to Barfoot staff before the auction, saying he did not consent to the sale proceeding and that there were “unresolved issues” in terms of authority and “payments already made”.
The letter, obtained by the Herald, also referenced “urgent court documentation” and said he was giving Barfoot “formal notice” before the auction took place.
However, the auction went ahead. Bidding started at $600,000. Three phone bidders traded more than 100 bids over 40 minutes before the hammer fell.
“Time’s up now, final call at a million, four-three-five and I sell,” a parched auctioneer Murray Smith told the room.
“It is going, it’s going, and gone.”
This former chicken farm at 2 Logan Rd, Buckland, went under the hammer on September 2 in a forced High Court rating sale.
Van den Bogaart has been in a protracted legal standoff with the council and had not made a rates payment in 14 years.
He declined to comment after the auction, saying he needed to consult his lawyer.
But six years ago, he told the Herald: “I don’t give a s*** if it’s a million in rates, I’m not going to pay those f***ers in Auckland a cent”.
The 2.2ha commercial property has a 2024 council valuation of $2.2m.
While Auckland Council refused to divulge how much van den Bogaart owed, 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 Herald understands the debt had ballooned to about $250,000 from arrears and penalties.
Parties associated with van den Bogaart made a $58,000 payment this week in a failed last-minute bid to halt the sale.
Auckland Council applied to the High Court to forcibly sell the former chicken farm in Buckland after its owner failed to pay any rates in 14 years.
Rating sales a ‘last resort’
Auckland Council group chief financial officer Ross Tucker confirmed the payment was received on Monday.
“The council stood ready to halt this sale right up until the time of the auction today, if the debt could be satisfactorily resolved.”
However, despite indications further payments would be made to settle the debt, nothing more was received.
He said an urgent application was filed with the High Court this week requesting the auction be delayed “on the basis that the property owner was not required to settle the rates debt for various reasons”.
However, the court issued a minute today directing that the sale go ahead.
Rating sales were a last resort, Tucker said.
The council had to be fair to the thousands of Aucklanders who did pay their rates.
Proceeds from the sale would be used to repay the rating debt and associated costs, with anything remaining returned to the owner.
A Barfoot & Thompson spokesman said the company took instructions from its client, which in this case was the High Court.
Owner alleges ‘slush fund for Auckland City’
When the Herald spoke to van den Bogaart in 2020, the then 62-year-old estimated he owed more than $50,000.
After the council launched legal action in 2017, van den Bogaart filed a counterclaim and 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, telling the Herald the property had been derelict for 10 years, used no council services and generated no income.
The 2.2ha property at 2 Logan Rd, Buckland, has a 2024 CV of $2.2 million.
“There’s no house, no residence and nobody living on the property. I want to know what the property is being rated for.
“I’m not paying rates if it’s going into a slush fund for Auckland City.”
The case went to trial in September 2022. A judge found in the council’s favour, dismissing van den Bogaart’s counterclaim and ordering him to pay more than $100,000.
The High Court gave the green light for the council to proceed to a rating sale last year after no further payment was received.
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.
The former poultry farm is the third property forcibly sold by Auckland Council over unpaid rates.
The last case was a North Shore townhouse with an outstanding rates bill of more than $219,000. It went under the hammer in April this year after the council 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.
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 after 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.