Pay your rates or lose your property
Fri 24 April 2009
Megan Marks, Journalism
More than 220 Sunshine Coast ratepayers face losing their properties if they do not pay their overdue rates, a council committee meeting was told in March, 2009.
The Sunshine Coast Regional Council meeting heard the Local Government Act allowed councils to sell properties that were three years behind in rates payments.
The current group of late ratepayers owe more than $2 million in rates.
Originally 411 properties were on the list, but this was reduced to 222 through recent negotiations between Council and the owners.
Finance portfolio Councillor Chris Thompson said some property owners were protected from losing their homes for late payment of rates.
“Properties owned by pensioners and owner-occupied properties without a mortgage will avoid the public auction, with their debts pursued through alternative methods,” Cr Thompson said.
The meeting was told that mortgagors were the most reliable in paying late rates, as they risked foreclosure on their home if the charges were not paid.
Cr Thompson said in the past 10 years only two properties had been sent to auction to recoup overdue rates.
In those cases, one property owner could not be located, while the other property owner was “happy” to have his land sold.
Councillor Lew Brennan said auctioning properties was unpopular with the previous Noosa Council, but since the Sunshine Coast Regional Council amalgamation it had become necessary to follow up bad debts.
“The previous Noosa Council didn’t have a cash flow problem so it was easier to let those things sit,” Cr Brennan said.
The meeting heard that currently bank loan interest was at an all-time low, while late ratepayers were paying 11 per cent interest on their debts.
It was concluded that it was in the community’s favour to pursue the bad debts, in order to reduce the burden on the late ratepayers.
The global financial crisis was cited as good reason for Council to recommend the issue of auctioning late ratepayers’ homes to the Ordinary Meeting on March 12, 2009.
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