[Cherie Muir]

Hi guys

I wonder if you could take a moment to add to this thread or flick me an email at cherie.muir@randwick.nsw.gov.au as to what your council does with bonds, e.g. a bond for hall or venue hire, or for a damage deposit or landscape bond (i.e. stemming from DA conditions).

I’m thinking that a good few councils may have already shifted away from charging bonds altogether due to the difficulties sometimes encountered in refunding them in a timely and accurate way (e.g. out of date information for the owner of the bond, property changing hands, etc).

Some councils may have moved to a credit card pre-authorisation system (like hotels do)?

I’d really like to know what your council is doing … if you have a moment to let me know. Thanks in advance.

Regards
Cherie

[Andrea Dolan]

Hi Cherie

I asked our Finance Coordinator about what we do here at Canterbury-Bankstown and she has advised that we still charge bonds. Some time ago they did discuss the introduction of a pre-authorisation system, however as the refund of such bonds may be quite some time later, the option wouldn’t work. There’s a time limit as to how long the pre-authorisation is valid for.

Due to the whole accounting & refund process for bonds being very time consuming, their preference would be no deposits.

The team would be very interested in any outcomes from this post.

Andrea

[Cherie Muir]

Hey Andrea, thank you

Pre-auth time limits have extended and become more consistent over the years – but certainly still not long enough for the bonds we keep over time. Pre-auths would work well the casual (one-off) bond situations, e.g. a hall hire on a weekend with the bond being refunded the next working week.
You’re so right … no deposits would be the ideal state given the amount of administration involved in managing them.
I’d love to find a council who has stopped taking them and talk to them about their experience.
See you in March 🙂

Cherie

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