Its that time of the year when council rates and strata fees bills arrive. So I’ve just paid them for each of our investment properties:
IP #1 rates- $377 strata- $491
IP #2 rates -$283 strata – $523
We have separate offset bank accounts for each property so that any money in that account helps to reduce the amount of interest we pay on the loans. All the rent is paid into the specific account and all the deductions for that property come out of it. It makes it very easy at tax time.
The rates for our house are paid automatically each week. I pay $60 and that will get us a bit ahead in payments. I’d like to start next year with a nice buffer of savings on all my bills. The annual bill for our rates is $1532 paid quarterly ($383 per quarter). We also pay for water here and I noticed our water bill has gone up – so I’ll have to look into that more closely on the weekend.
We’ve had a few days now to try out the outdoor blinds in really hot weather. They have definitely made a difference to the heat inside. Most days we’ve only put the air conditioning on for a few hours in the late afternoon and just used a fan during the day. We’ve still got the big awning to go up out the back this weekend and a few more windows I need to buy blinds for.
Its a bit cooler here today which is good and the fire in the town half an hour away that has been going since the weekend is back under control but theres still smoke in the air.
I’m interested to know how much council rates are in other countries, how much are your rates?
We have a detached home(2100+ sq.ft.) on a 1/3 acre lot in a small town(rural setting) a few miles from a big city down the valley in NE Pennsylvania. We pay real estate taxes and school taxes on our home/property. Really it's all real estate taxes they just divide it that way so that a portion(2/3 of it)goes to pay for the local schools and the other 1/3rd goes to pay for municipal costs(roads mostly as we don't get free garbage pick-up). We also pay for sewage/waste water separately to the town for service. Between all three of those(real estate, school and sewage)we currently pay just over $3900 per year.
I know what a council rate is having read many UK blogs but what the heck is a strata? 😉
Is it like an HOA here(home owner's association, where you pay a fee for the upkeep of the exterior and public areas/facilities and sometimes also includes some utilities for your personal unit in a condominium/townhouse or apartment situation)?
yes, it sounds the same as a HOA, it covers the insurance and upkeep for the buildings, things like inspections, roof repairs grounds repairs and maintenance. All the owners contribute to a fund and these bills are paid from that. Both our IPs are units. the tenants pay their own utilities.
thats quite a lot! Our block is almost 1000 sq ft about 5 mins from the centre of town – a detached house in the suburbs the rates get lower the further away you are from the city centre. It covers sewage, a water access fee, roads, garbage removal. we pay water separately.
That's $3900US so about $4905AU?
For the US $3900 a year isn't that much. Neighboring NY & NJ property taxes are much higher on a similar sized property…about double what we pay.