Wagga residents are overwhelmingly supportive of council’s need to sell properties with more than five years of unpaid rates.
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A report presented to councillors on Monday night detailed 29 properties with extremely overdue rates totalling more than $254,000.
Council finance chief Natalie Te Pohe said selling those properties was a last resort and “we would much prefer the property owners contact the city to discuss and negotiate an agreed payment plan”.
More than 80 per cent of respondents to a Daily Advertiser poll said council should sell the properties.
In total, Wagga City Council is owed about $4.5 million from 4617 properties across the local government area.
Councillor Paul Funnell said plenty of people managed to pay their rates on time and it was a responsibility all property owners had to meet.
“We’d rather people pay their rates, it takes years to get to this point and council goes through every process known to man to make that happen,” Cr Funnell said.
“Rates are one of those things people may not like but if you don’t pay them someone else has to foot the bill for services like roads and rubbish collection.
“This decision is not taken lightly, council staff go to Nth degree to give people an opportunity to bring their payments up to scratch including payment plans.”
The Local Government Act gives councils the power to “sell any land (including vacant land) on which any rate or charge has remained unpaid for more than five years from the date on which it became payable”.
Land rates are due quarterly, but Wagga City Council offers payment plans in cases of financial hardship. Ms Te Pohe was hopeful that property owners would work with staff to come to an agreement in the best interest of all parties.
While council tried to avoid selling off properties with unpaid rates, Councillor Kerry Pascoe pointed out it didn’t collect the total of the sale.
“The owners get the balance of the sale, after the rates, interest and costs are removed,” he said.
“I can only remember two occasions in the past 13 years where we’ve put land up for auction.”
Both councillors wanted to see a more regular process for identifying extremely overdue rates, with Cr Funnell suggesting it could be a clear message to people that they should not wait until the last minute.