[Brigitte McFarlane]

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to see what everyone else is doing in this scenario.

On occasion we have previous owners all of a sudden randomly BPAY regular payments to a property they no longer own. We have had a request for a refund of these payments (3 years’ worth). The current owner has been paying the difference for their instalments (would have thought they would have noticed).

Currently we request a bank statement showing account name and all the deductions. After the refund is processed we then write a letter to the current owner advising them of the situation and to organise payment for their (now in arrears) account. Turning interest off for a period of time.

Does anyone do anything else differently?

thanks Brigitte

[Tracey Walker]

Hi Brigitte,

Here at Sutherland, we only refund the last 12 months of payments after we have received evidence of payments made.
Our decision was based on the Recovery of Impost Act 1963, and the fact that the owner who has received the payments have the opportunity to repay a reasonable sum interest free without causing them any hardship.

Thus far we haven’t had any issues in relation to this.

Hope this helps.

[Peter ODonnell]

Hi Brigitte,

Here at Junee we have had a couple of similar cases.

The first was exactly as yours above, except the previous owner had purchased a new house in town and never bothered to change any of their net banking details for rates, water, electricity and gas. So after two years Council commenced legal action on their new property and they came in and paid the debt at the front counter, but not saying anything and continuing to Bpay their former property . Fast forward 18 months and the same again but this time they asked to speak to me after receiving the demand letter. I notified the current owner and he was aware he wasn’t paying the correct amounts. We refunded the previous owner (actually transferred the payments to their new property) and notified the current owner of his updated liability.

The other was much more complicated, also person was paying via BPay. They subdivided the one lot property into 3 lots, which were then rated individually. The 3 assessments were all sold quickly (2 of them changed hands twice), with payments still coming in from the original owner to the original assessment. Finally Council was advised the payments should never have been paid. Due to the multiple sales and subdivisions and 603 issued Council agreed to to refund the payments around $3k.

We barely go a month now without having to deal with some issue caused by owners Bpaying wrong amounts to wrong accounts.

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