May 8, 2020
South Burnett Regional Council has voted to write off more than $310,000 in unpaid rates and charges after auctioning 17 properties last November.
At April’s council meeting, officers said rates staff had issued final notices in December 2018 to the owners of properties which had three or more years of overdue rates owing.
Those notices requested each owner either pay their outstanding rates in full, or enter an approved repayment arrangement with Council before the end of February 2019.
Councillors then voted at their March 2019 meeting to issue formal Notices of Intention to Sell to 36 owners who had failed to respond.
These final notices – posted on April 30 – warned property owners they had a maximum period of six months to pay their rates in full or Council would sell their property at public auction.
This resulted in 19 of the 36 properties settling their outstanding rates debt.
The remaining 17 properties were put up for sale at a public auction held at Kingaroy Town Hall’s supper room on November 19.
Officers told the meeting the properties were offered at current market value – which was generally lower than the unimproved/site valuation provided by the Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy – and about 30 bidders registered for the auction.
However, bids failed to reach the reserve prices.
Council then negotiated with the highest bidder, which resulted in higher offers being received for 15 of the 17 unsold properties.
The remaining two properties were passed in and Council automatically became their new owner.
At last week’s meeting, Councillors resolved unanimously to write off $308,298 in unpaid rates and interest charges, plus $2250 in unpaid overgrown allotment charges that were not cleared by the proceeds of the auction.
Mayor Brett Otto noted the recovery action had been started by the previous Council and had recouped $288,568 in outstanding rates.
Further, the 15 properties that had been sold – which were located in Kingaroy’s Oasis Estate and were formerly owned by one developer – were now owned by 15 individuals and generating rates revenue for Council.
“Had Council not moved on this then $288,568 would not have been recovered,” the Mayor said.
He also said while the November auction may not have achieved everything that was hoped, he believed it was still a much better result than if the auction had been held in recent months.
Officers said the outcome did not affect Council’s overall bank account.
However, it would lower the amount of revenue reported on the income statement, and this would have implications for the Council’s 2020-21 Budget.
