Hi Anita,
Under Sec 710 Council is obliged (in relation to postal service of notices) to post the letter “to the last known place of residence or business or post office box of the person to be served”.
So as long as you sent to the notice to the last known address, whether returned or not, the notice is deemed to be served.
However, if the notice is then returned to sender, I am not aware of any legislation that states that you are obliged to investigate the correct address. However, I would propose that it would be in your interests to do so in order to ensure accounts are not accumulating overdue rates and charges when it is clear that Council was aware that the ratepayer did not in fact receive their notice (because it has been returned to you).
For mail returned to sender, we also do our best to proactively contact the ratepayers and advise of the circumstance and request a change of address be completed, and then accordingly post the returned notice to the new address.
I would be interested to hear if anyone else has any alternate viewpoints on this, or whether generally all Councils follow up RTS mail on the basis of customer service and trying to ensure accounts are paid in a timely manner?
Thanks,
Susan
