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2 JUNE 2021
REAL INDEPENDENT LOCAL WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE 241
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Three road workers were hospitalised after a B-double semi-trailer crashed into two work trucks on the M1 Pacific Motorway in the early hours of Tuesday, June 1.
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The burnt truck (Inset - The Truck on fire - Photo: Sarah Stock)
123 properties to be sold by public auction to recover unpaid rates
Central Coast Council has moved to recover more than $1.7M in unpaid rates and charges.
Council has exhausted all other avenues available under the Local Government Act to recover these rates and will now move to sell 123 properties by public auction.
Council Administrator, Rik Hart, said the sales were the option of last resort.
“We understand that some members of our community are suffering from genuine hardship, and for those behind on rates in that circumstance, our teams have worked with them to plan repayments,” Hart said.
“However, more than half of the properties targeted in this sale have outstanding rates for more than five years, and all other attempts by Council to address this has failed.
“It also includes 50 vacant properties that are more than one year in arrears and have not provided an application for genuine hardship or entered into an arrangement that meets Council guidelines for payment.
“In such a dire financial situation, we can no longer expect other ratepayers to subsidise these unpaid properties.”
Council said it would not proceed with the sale of any land owned by pensioners, but it noted that pensioner land which met the criteria for sale to recover rates, equalled the value of $2,249,609.
In the former Wyong local government area, there are a total 80 properties with outstanding rates, and 46 with outstanding water rates.
There are 25 vacant properties, seven business properties, 14 residential properties and 34 pensioner residential properties.
In the former Gosford Council area, there are 25 vacant properties, two business, 50 residential and 110 pensioner residential.
Council said collections for unpaid rates followed two processes.
Internal collections for unpaid rates start at 15 days in arrears for amounts over $10.
Unpaid rates that exceed $2,000, inclusive of both water and rates charges, are outsourced to a legal service provider for recovery at two or more quarters in arrears (about 6-7 months overdue).
There are several strategies that are used by the legal service provider to settle arrears with ratepayers, which starts with a contact letter and moves on to a notice of legal action and many steps later it may end with a recommendation for sale.
Council requires that arrangements to pay must not exceed nine months, inclusive of new bills, unless supported by an application for genuine hardship.
Source: Media release, May 25 Central Coast Council
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