Rate Categories

Each property falls into one of 4 categories for rating purposes, dependent on the actual use of the property:

  • Residential
  • Farmland
  • Mining
  • Business

Category of Land Information

Residential Singleton

Applies to land within the Singleton town area which has a dominant residential use (other than a hotel, motel, guesthouse, backpacker hostel or nursing home or for any other form of residential accommodation, not being a boarding house or lodging house, prescribed by the regulations; or zoned for residential purposes).

 

Rural Residential

Applies to land with a dominant residential use, located in or near a residential subdivision, which is outside the NSW Fire Brigade Area and is located within 225 metres of a water main. The majority of these properties are situated on the fringe of Singleton and Branxton. 

Residential Village

Applies to land, which has a dominant residential use and is located within a village area.

Residential Ordinary

Applies to all land, which has a dominant residential use and cannot be categorised in any of the other residential categories. 

Business Singleton

Applies to land within the Singleton town area, which cannot be classified as farmland, residential or mining.

Business Mount Thorley

Applies to land situated in the Mount Thorley Industrial area, which cannot be classified as farmland, residential or mining. 

Business Village

Applies to land situated in a village area, which cannot be classified as farmland, residential or mining. 

Business Ordinary

Applies to all land within the Singleton Local Government Area, which has a business use that cannot be categorised as farmland, residential or mining. 

Farmland Ordinary

Applies to all properties that satisfy the farmland definition. The rate will apply to all farming properties within the Singleton Local Government Area. To apply for Farmland Rating, please complete the application form via our online services portal. 

Mining - Coal

Applies to all parcels of rateable land held or used for coal mining purposes.

Change of Category of Land Legislation

At any time, you may apply to Council to have your land category reviewed. The ratepayer must advise Council within 30 days if the circumstances of their land changes so as to cause it to change from one category to another.

If you are dissatisfied with Council's declaration of the category of your land after it has been reviewed, or the date the category of your land is to take effect, you may appeal to the Land and Environment Court within 30 days after the declaration is made under the Local Government Act 1993 (Section 526).

Legislation

Section 525 of the Local Government Act, 1993 Application for change of category Page 4 of 7 

  1. A rateable person (or the person's agent) may apply to the council at any time: (a) for a review of a declaration that the person's rateable land is within a particular category for the purposes of section 514, or (b) to have the person's rateable land declared to be within a particular category for the purposes of that section.
  2. An application must be in the approved form, must include a description of the land concerned and must nominate the category the applicant considers the land should be within.
  3. The council must declare the land to be within the category nominated in the application unless it has reasonable grounds for believing that the land is not within that category.
  4. If the council has reasonable grounds for believing that the land is not within the nominated category, it may notify the applicant of any further information it requires in order to be satisfied that the land is within that category. After considering any such information, the council must declare the category for the land.
  5. The council must notify the applicant of its decision. The council must include the reasons for its decision if it declares that the land is not within the category nominated in the application.
  6. If the council has not notified the applicant of its decision within 40 days after the application is made to it, the council is taken, at the end of the 40-day period, to have declared the land to be within its existing category.