[Simone Fisher]

Hi Liz, we don’t have an official policy but if there was a life tenancy or legal deed of agreement in place we would approve & grant the rebate here @ Wollondilly.
Thanks

[Simone Fisher]

Hi David, Wollondilly is having the same issue. Valuations reconciled for first few supp lists after the g-val but haven’t since. We’ve contacted the VG’s who have advised that their new system is experiencing some data sync issues so appears some new & cancelled valuations included in the valuation total have not been provided on a supp list. They are working on a data fix to correct the issue.
Thanks,
Simone

[Simone Fisher]

Hi Michelle, if the estate has one rateable valuation then one base amount applies. Sec 499(3) “(3) The appropriate base amount so specified is to form part of the rate levied on each separate parcel of rateable land subject to the rate.”

The LGA dictionary provides a definition of what a parcel of rateable land is – “parcel of land, in relation to rateable land, means a portion or parcel of land separately valued under the Valuation of Land Act 1916.”

Thanks
Simone

[Simone Fisher]

Hi Carmel, I’ve had a similar situation at 2 Councils. Both became very political. The outcome for both was a negotiation when the new lease was due & Council agreeing to pay future years rates & not passing full amount onto the tenant.
Thanks
Simone

[Simone Fisher]

Hi

Just incase any Civica Councils haven’t seen this. Email from Civica sent 24/10/2024 is below.
Thanks
Simone

‘Notice for NSW Councils:
Preliminary Land Classification Data Extract

Civica has been made aware of a recent communication to Councils from Revenue NSW in relation to Preliminary Land Classifications, including the requirement to provide Revenue NSW with land classification and property identification data for all properties in their area by 2nd December 2024.

Whilst this came about at short notice, and without prior consultation with software vendors from Revenue NSW, we are currently working on providing Councils with the ability to load your VG Reference Data file into Authority where data exception reporting will occur. Once exceptions are resolved, an extract file will be produced in the required format. We will advise in due course on the plan for release given the extremely limited notice period.

It is mandatory that that your Land Classification Data is held in Rate Attributes. A new parameter record will hold the corresponding attribute code for:
• Land_Classification
• Land_Classification_Apportionment
• Specified_Use

Your Rate Attribute Data must be created in accordance with Revenue NSW guidelines:

If Council requires assistance in creation of Rate Attribute codes or assistance to populate Assessments with their associated classifications, please contact your Account Manager. However please be aware that due to demand and time available, our ability to service all requests will be limited. We’ll address requests on a first-come, first-served basis.

In preparation for the upcoming release (which will likely be a hotfix on top of the latest release), we recommend all Councils to upgrade to the latest version ahead of time. This will enable you to be ready to receive the new release (or hotfix) at short notice given the timeframes set out by Revenue NSW.

Thank you,
LG Release Management Team’

[Simone Fisher]

For Authority v7.1 users this is the process that Wollondilly will be using. There are a number of ways to extract required data but this is the way that we found worked best for us. Hopefully it may be of some assistance. If anyone needs any further information please reach out. I can be contacted at simone.fisher@wollondilly.nsw.gov.au or 4677 9622.

Thanks
Simone

Process taken by WSC for Revenue NSW ESL Classification file (final version)

[Simone Fisher]

Hi Pete,
Wollondilly are on v7.1. I’m not aware of any discussions or plans to move to Altitude yet.
Thanks
Simone

[Simone Fisher]

Hi Maria,
We had a recent request for exemption for a Bio Banking agreement under the Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995. A copy of the agreement was provided with a fact sheet that advised:
‘Land that is subject to a conservation agreement 5 is exempt from rates under section 555(1)(b1) of the Local Government Act 1993.
5 Clause 18 of the Biodiversity Conservation (Savings and Transitional) Regulation 2017 provides that any reference to a conservation agreement under section 69B of the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974 is to be read as a reference to a conservation agreement under Division 3 of Part 5 of the BC Act”

We received legal advice which confirmed:
The Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 was replaced with the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016. Regulations relating to the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 are in the Biodiversity Conservation (Savings and Transitional) Regulation 2017.

Clause 13(1) of Biodiversity Conservation (Savings and Transitional) Regulation 2017 provides:
‘A biobanking agreement that was made under Part 7A of the Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 and that was in force on the repeal of that Act is taken to be a biodiversity stewardship agreement entered into under Division 2 of Part 5 of the new Act’

In accordance with clause 13(1) and 18(a) of the regulation, Biodiversity stewardship agreements are referred to separately to conservation agreements under the new Act with conservation agreements being under Division 3 of Part 5 and stewardship agreements being under Division 2 of Part 5.

We therefore declined the requested as the agreement provided fell under Division 2 of Part 5 of the new Act and not as a reference to a conservation agreement under Division 3 of Part 5 of the new Act.

The owner did query this & were advised the seek their own legal advice but we have not yet received any formal request to review the decision to decline the application.

Thanks
Simone

[Simone Fisher]

Hi Glynes,

Agree with Ian. Here at Wollondilly we would only be assessing from date of application (unless application was made within 30 days of service of the Rates & Charges Notice. In which case we would assess from 1 July only). If they only purchased the property in 2019 it seems strange to me that they would have made an application for exemption in 2017 & even if they did I expect that it would have been declined due to them not being owners & a new application would have been required when the property transferred to them.

Thanks,
Simone

[Simone Fisher]

Hi Cherie, we accept instruction directly from the managing agent.

Thanks
Simone

[Simone Fisher]

Hi Glynes,
Manager Development Services has delegation here. Rates would only become involved once registration has occurred & changes were required to rate accounts.
Kind regards,
Simone

[Simone Fisher]

Hi Megan, we have an additional rebate for SRV. I’ll send you through our parameters. If you’re on Authority v7.1 the rebate parameters now require that each rebate type be set-up for every year so you could easily set a different amount for each year as required. Its been a while since I’ve used v6.11 but from memory I think there is only one rebate parameter which would be the current year & then previous years would need to be added via journal.

Please feel free to contact me if anything else is needed.

Thanks

Simone

[Simone Fisher]

Hi Courtney,
Wollondilly issues a generic SMS reminder 3 days after each instalment due date to every overdue account that we hold a number for. ‘Friendly reminder! Rate instalment was due DD/MM/YY. Please refer to rate notice for payment options or contact Wollondilly Shire Council on (02) 4677 1100’
We don’t have an opt in but collect mobile numbers from enquires & other applications & hold a number for about 30% of ratepayers. Ratepayers can opt out by phone.
The first couple of times we issued them they had a big impact & reduced the number of missed instalment notices that we issued (which are always issued 2 weeks after the instalment due date) compared to the previous quarter.
This initial impact has died down more recently though & at some point we’ll commence having alook at a way we can commence using our recently implemented rates customer portal to push out a more personalised SMS.
Kind regards,
Simone

[Simone Fisher]

Hi,
Wollondilly grants the Stormwater Management Charge, $45 & 50% of the core Domestic Waste Waste Charge.
Thanks,
Simone

[Simone Fisher]

Hi Cherie,
Our Customer Service call centre handles basic rate enquires. This is a new change (approx. 6 months). Previously our 3 Revenue Officers handled all calls but with growth & increased work volumes it was becoming difficult to keep on-top of everything else without an additional resource so I have trained our customer service team & provided them with a basic enquires FAQ’s guide to ensure consistency with any information that they provide ratepayers. 603 updates are still handled by rates team only.
Thanks
Simone

[Author]

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