Council has received an application for a pension rebate on two units that a husband and wife own together. The units are side by side and are connected by an internal door. Council initially granted the full $250 rebate on both properties back in 2011. Unfortunately we are unable to find the original applications and can only assume that there was two applications one for each address.
Late last year Centrelink disputed that one of the units was not the principal place of residence and cancelled the PCC on this unit. Council reversed the half year rebate being $162.50 as of a result of the quarterly verification.
The owners took their appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal who on the 14 May 2019 handed down the decision that the two units are occupied together as their principal place of residence.
Centrelink have now restored the PCC back to the original start date and the owners are requesting that council in turn provide them with the rebate of $162.50 that was reversed. We have checked our property records there is no applications lodged to use the two dwellings as one, and a google search has not shown any rentals for either unit.
The application forms that have been completed one for each owner, that shows both addresses although the PCC only list one mailing address. So I am not entirely comfortable with granting the $162.50 back to the owners.
Has anyone else had a similar issue or advice on how to handle this matter?
.
