{"id":54014,"date":"2014-01-13T16:09:48","date_gmt":"2014-01-13T06:09:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=54014"},"modified":"2020-09-06T13:32:45","modified_gmt":"2020-09-06T03:32:45","slug":"council-willo-sell-properties-to-recover-unpaid-rates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2014\/01\/13\/council-willo-sell-properties-to-recover-unpaid-rates\/","title":{"rendered":"Council Will Sell Properties
To Recover Unpaid Rates"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"SBRC<\/a>
South Burnett Mayor Wayne Kratzmann (Photo: SBRC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

January 13, 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>The South Burnett Regional Council will put 24 properties up for auction next month to recover unpaid rates.<\/p>\n

The properties will be auctioned at the Kingaroy Customer Service Centre at 10:00am on Friday, February 21, unless the owners can pay the Council their outstanding rates beforehand.<\/p>\n

The auction follows almost a year of efforts by Council officers to contact the owners and persuade them to come to some arrangement to settle their accounts.<\/p>\n

The Council began recovery action against 39 property owners in October 2012 and has been able to make repayment arrangements with 15 of them since that time.<\/p>\n

The December meeting of the Council was told the total unimproved capital value of the remaining properties was more than $2.28 million while the amount of outstanding rates was a little over $201,000 – less than 10 per cent of their net worth.<\/p>\n

Mayor Wayne Kratzamann said that he was “very reluctant” to put the properties up for auction.<\/p>\n

“That’s why Council has been making every possible effort to contact the owners and persuade them to enter repayment arrangements.<\/p>\n

“However, all Councils are legally obliged to proceed this way if they’re unable to strike a repayment arrangement with a property owner, and beyond a certain point their hands are tied.<\/p>\n

“All the same, this is heart-breaking and no one enjoys seeing something like this happen.”<\/p>\n

Related articles:<\/strong><\/p>\n