FIRST the M9, now another huge shock to the system of Oakville’s Fritz and Maree Hofer, whose rates will soon go up and in three years time be about $5000 per year.
The retirees who live on acreage at Oakville have been hit by two decisions of governments in recent times, and say they are in a desperate situation.
Their property is in the way of the M9/Outer Sydney Orbital corridor, and they face the prospect of losing some of their land.
On top of that, they’ve just found out that after their rates bill more than doubled last year, it is going up again in 2018-19.
The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal has given its blessing to Hawkesbury Council to raise its rates by 9.5 per cent – or seven per cent above rate pegging – per year over the next three years.
It means for the Hofers that their rates bill, which recently went from about $1800 to just under $4000, is going up again, and in three years will be above $5000.
“My wife and I are pensioners and long term we can't sustain that,” Fritz Hofer said.
Mr Hofer said he had never been one to complain, but the 70-year-old said the situation he now found himself in necessitated it.
“We basically hit the jackpot,” he said ironically.
“Usually I would not talk to the media but we are desperate and I want to do anything I can to let people know what is happening around here.
“I never complained or wanted anything to change and all of a sudden it has hit us with a sledge hammer. You lie in bed at night and think ‘what have I done to deserve this’.”
Mr Hofer said he loved his life in Oakville, and had lived there for 41 years.
He said with the road corridor and now the rates, he felt the odds were stacked against him.
Mr Hofer said he had no idea what the M9 corridor would do to the value of his property. He added wryly, that he might not have to wait long to find out, because his rates were far too much for him and his wife to afford.
“The value of our land must have dropped by half, but we still pay the high rates, and we can't sustain that in the long term,” he said.
He questioned the value for money he received from the rates he paid.
“I never whinged. We live on a rural property, you expect a few holes in the road, but now I am paying the higher rates and I expect a lot more,” he said.
“Kerb and guttering for example and it is really only Oakville who copped this because of the neighbouring suburbs of The Hills.”
Mr Hofer said he had never thought of Hawkesbury Council as an overly political organisation, but said his opinion of the organisation had changed dramatically.
“I think they are very anti-five acre property owners.”
