Cambridge to hold Special Council Meeting to correct rates error

Published on 03 September 2025

Fact File

• The Town of Cambridge has identified two errors with the striking of rates for 2025/2026 and the adoption of the Annual Budget.
• The first rates error is a calculation error in the rate applied to Unimproved Value (UV) properties. 
• The error resulted in an overcharge of approximately $999,739 in rates to 4,633 properties in the Endowment Lands Area (parts of City Beach and Floreat).

• Refunds or credits will be issued to affected property owners.
• The Town will not increase rates to recover the shortfall.  Instead, the budget will be adjusted using surplus funds from the previous financial year.
• The second is a procedural error in the budget adoption process where the term “cents in the dollar” was incorrectly used in part of the Council resolution to adopt the 2025/2026 Annual Budget. The terminology does not comply with the Local Government Act 1995, which requires rates to be expressed as a “rate in the dollar”.
• The corresponding correct GRV rate in the dollar was however shown.
• To correct the errors, the Town applied to the State Administrative Tribunal (SAT) to quash the previously imposed rates.
• The SAT has the ability to make such an order when it is in the public interest. The SAT order provides legal authority for the correction and re-adoption of elements of the budget. 
• SAT approved the Town’s application to quash the rates on 2 September.
• The Town will hold a Special Council Meeting on 3 September at 6pm to re-instate the correct rate in the dollar and correct and re-adopt relevant elements of the 2025/2026 Annual Budget.  

The Town of Cambridge will hold a Special Council Meeting on Wednesday 3 September following SAT’s quashing of the 2025/2026 rates after the Town identified two errors in the striking of the rates and the adoption of the Annual Budget.

The Town’s Administration identified the issues as they conducted an internal review following an enquiry from a ratepayer about how their rates had been calculated. 

The internal review firstly uncovered a calculation error in the rate in the dollar applied to Unimproved Value (UV) properties located within the areas covered by the Cambridge Endowment Lands Act, namely parts of City Beach and Floreat.

Further investigations then uncovered a procedural error in the budget adoption process. The term “cents in the dollar” was used in Limb 2 of the Council resolution to adopt the 2025/2026 Annual Budget on 24 June 2025.  The Local Government Act 1995 requires rates to be expressed as “rate in the dollar”.  This created a possible conflict with another part of the resolution, which correctly used “rate in the dollar”.

The calculation error will be of most interest to people as it has resulted in higher rates charges being applied to some property owners in City Beach and Floreat.

An incorrect rate in the dollar was applied to properties within the Endowment Lands Area.  The correct rate in the dollar should have been 0.001854, not 0.001995 as previously applied to issued rates notices for affected properties.

This resulted in an overcharge of $999,739 across 4,633 properties located in City Beach and Floreat.  

Refunds or credits will be issued to affected property owners with adjustments ranging from $8.75 up to $2,437 (for our largest commercial property), depending on property value. Impacted ratepayers will be notified directly regarding their refund or credit.

The Town will not increase rates to recover the shortfall, and no impact on service levels is expected. Instead, the budget will be adjusted using surplus funds and additional unbudgeted income from the previous financial year.

Following legal advice and consultation with the Department of Local Government on how to most appropriately resolve this issue in the public interest, the Town applied to the State Administrative Tribunal (SAT) to quash the previously imposed rates. The SAT approved the application on 2 September 2025.

The Town will now hold a Special Council Meeting at 6pm on 3 September to correct the errors.  At the meeting, Council will be asked to reinstate the correct rate in the dollar.  Relevant elements of the 2025/2026 Annual Budget, such as income from rates, are also being corrected and will be presented for re-adoption.

Town of Cambridge CEO Lisa Clack has apologised for the error.

“I would like to sincerely apologise to the Town’s ratepayers for this mistake. We appreciate that Council rates make up a large part of household budgets, and issuing Cambridge residents with the wrong amount is unacceptable.

“This error was identified when a ratepayer queried how their rates had been calculated with our Rates team.  We take queries from ratepayers seriously, and following that query, our team conducted a full review of all rate calculations.  This is when we identified the calculation and procedural errors.   Once identified, we acted swiftly to correct the issue as quickly as possible.  Tonight’s Special Council Meeting to correct the rate in the dollar is part of that response, and the next step will be to commence issuing refunds to impacted residents. I hope that this goes some way to rebuilding some trust with our community.

“I want to confirm that this issue impacts only properties in the Endowment Lands Area, which is parts of City Beach and Floreat.  Residents in other parts of the Town can be assured your rates are correct.  We have double-checked and confirmed this.

“I’d also like to apologise to the Town’s Council directly. The budget process this year was a strong team effort from both employees and Elected Members and for this issue to be identified after that process is deeply regrettable.

“I want to confirm to our community that the error originated during the early modelling stages of the calculation, with a rating quirk specific to the Town of Cambridge. Unfortunately, it was not picked up in subsequent internal reviews, and it would not have been possible for the Town’s Elected Members to identify the error during the budget process.

“The issue was squarely with the Town’s Administration in the calculation of the rates.  I know the Mayor and Council committed many hours to interrogating budget data to achieve the best outcome for their community, including the rates modelling they were presented during the budget development as part of their commitment to transparency and accountability,” she said.

The Town is committed to engaging an external reviewer to identify process improvements in the rates calculation and modelling as part of the budget development, to ensure ratepayers can be confident we have implemented any required checks and balances for the issuing of future rates notices. Any recommended actions or improvements from the review will be shared with Council and our community upon completion.

While ratepayers who may be due a refund are not required to contact the Town about this process, we encourage anyone with questions about this to contact the Town’s rates department on (08) 9347 6000.