Summarised by Centrist
A Canterbury family has lost its home after trying to settle a large rates debt with a commemorative $10 coin.
The High Court ordered the sale of Nigel Rose’s rural property near Eyrewell after an application by Waimakariri District Council.
The house sold at auction in May for $535,000, well below its $720,000 rating valuation.
The council would not disclose the full amount owing, but said the rates debt and associated charges exceeded the sale price.
Before the forced sale, family representatives attended two council meetings and offered a silver-and-gold year 2000 souvenir coin as payment for all outstanding rates.
A supporter of the family said the coin was “legal tender” and should have been accepted.
The council disagreed.
It said the family had misinterpreted the Reserve Bank Act to mean “that any debt over $100 could be paid using a $10 coin”.
Rose said he and his four children faced homelessness following the sale.
“Living very rural as we do, the council provides us with zero services,” he said.
He criticised the council for selling “your only means of shelter” over unpaid rates of about $4000 a year.
Family representative Stephen Bell said Rose had lost income during COVID and had gone for three years without earnings or government assistance.
Bell denied the family were sovereign citizens and said they had been “working within the law, not above it”.
The council said forced sales were used only after other recovery efforts had failed.
Its process included letters, phone calls, visits, offers of payment plans, collection agencies and court proceedings.
The council said this was only its third forced sale, following earlier cases in 2010 and 2015.
