Timing is Everything

We got our land valuation notice yesterday. For those who have no idea what a land valuation notice is I will explain. It is an innocent-looking piece of paper sent by the local city council to tell you how much they believe your land is worth. The naive amongst us (namely me the first time I ever received one of these notices) will get a little excited to see the big numbers printed boldly on the paper. But the excitement only lasts until you realise that the whole thing is an evil plan for the council to tax you more money.

Yesterday we found out that the value of our land has gone up $125000 in the last year. A baffling number that I was sure some valuer had plucked out of the air ... that is until I realised that said valuer had probably been around in person to our magnificent house (and I say that with as much sarcasm as I can muster) while we had our lovely water feature. In all honesty, he would have had to come around for the short while when we had not only the front-yard pond/moat PLUS the gorgeous water fountain that was courtesy of the broken water pipe. I do believe that he should come back and revalue the property now that the pond has disappeared to be replaced by a muddy quagmire which is only attractive to mosquitoes. Honestly, timing is everything!