Shire denies privacy breach

By Dion Teasdale
THE Shire of Yarra Ranges has defended its use of a questionnaire to determine the value of commercial properties.
Healesville resident Ray Donkin last week labelled the questionnaire, and a request from the shire for commercial property owners to provide details of rental return figures, as intrusive.
“As an owner of a commercial property in Healesville I am amazed at the attempted intrusion by way of a questionnaire the Shire of Yarra Ranges has forwarded to commercial property owners,” he said.
“The reason for this intrusion as stated by letter is for an evaluation of all properties in the shire. They seek answers to a long list of questions which I fail to see has any correlation to the values of properties.”
Mr Donkin said the question he finds most offensive, a request for commercial property owners to submit rental return figures, appears in the opening letter but not on the actual questionnaire.
“I would like someone from the shire to clarify this contradiction, and I urge other landlords to do likewise,” he said.
Shire of Yarra Ranges community relations manager James Martin said the information requested is required under state government legislation and is used for determining accurate valuations for commercial properties.
“The data that is collected relates to the rental income gained through commercial and industrial properties and is treated confidentially. This is highlighted in the covering letter sent with the questionnaire,” Mr Martin said.
“Under the legislation, valuers are required to assess the annual rental on a year to year basis. The requirement to request rental information is governed by the Valuation of Land Act, which was enacted in 1960, so it is not a new arrangement.”
Mr Martin said the shire had sent out more than 3000 questionnaires this year and had not had any formal complaints apart from Mr Donkin.
“Staff from our property department have spoken with Mr Donkin to explain the process to him and to assure him that data is handled with the utmost confidentiality,” he said.
“We are able to use the data collected to ensure that Mr Donkin and other commercial and industrial property owners are not charged higher rates than they should otherwise be paying.”
Mr Donkin said he would like the shire to adopt less intrusive practices when it comes to conducting valuations on commercial properties.
“I would have thought it was possible to obtain true valuations by way of recent sales of like properties and consultations with estate agents, without gross invasions into business arrangements between landowners and tenants,” he said.