January 18, 2017
Councils will no longer publicly “name and shame” residents for unpaid rates after a homeowner lodged a complaint about Toowoomba Regional Council with the Queensland Ombudsman.
The homeowner woke last year to find the council had erected a sign on their property which effectively informed neighbours they couldn’t pay their rates.
The notice to sell the land because of overdue rates contained the homeowner’s name, which prompted a successful complaint to the Ombudsman.
The homeowner said they felt the public outing was “very humiliating”, “very offensive”, a breach of privacy and a “direct attack on my situation”.
“Due to a range of difficult life circumstances, the homeowner was in arrears in respect of the payment of their rates,” Ombudsman Phil Clarke’s report said.
“Having previously been advised of council’s intention to sell the property for overdue rates and charges, the homeowner woke one morning to find an auction notice erected outside of the property which contained their full name.”
Mr Clarke said he thought the move was unreasonable.
He rejected Toowoomba Regional Council’s argument the owner’s name was part of the land’s description, and that people with an interest in the land might miss the notice if it did not list names.
Mr Clarke said he had been advised by the Department Of Local Government there was no legal requirement to include an owner’s name on such a notice, and said he had found a number of Queensland councils do not currently do so.
“Homeowners’ names in auction notices can cause unnecessary distress and humiliation,” Mr Clake said.
“Many people would consider the inability to pay their bills, as and when they become due, to be a matter of shame and embarrassment. Distress is therefore a reasonably foreseeable response to the publication within a person’s community of the fact they cannot pay their bills.
“I also consider that it would be very common for a homeowner whose property is being sold for overdue rates and charges to have suffered a range of very difficult personal circumstances which culminated in them being in that situation.
“Many would be at a low point in their lives and more vulnerable than they would ordinarily be.”
The State Government will now advise Councils it is unnecessary to include names on notices.
