[Simone Fisher]

Hi Dani, We’re on v7.1. I checked with Civica & they couldn’t provide any procedures for reval processing in 7.1 so I used their 6.11 procedures & nothing has changed.
Thanks

[Simone Fisher]

Hi Mick,

We’re with the Audit Office & they didn’t ask us for the claim to be in any specific format. I have always provided them with our Centrelink Pensioner Verification saved in Excel & an Excel query from Authority of the subsidy claim data table which gives them a list of all of the assessments & claim amounts in the PDF audit report so this may have been enough to satisfy them.

Thanks
Simone

[Simone Fisher]

Hi Matthew,
We recommenced in July 2022. We haven’t officially adjusted our thresholds but since costs have increased we were abit more selective with the accounts we proceeded on for our first round of action & we also phoned or emailed each account (where possible) prior to proceeding to the SLC if we hadn’t previously spoken to them. We may look at increasing our thresholds when we next review our debt recovery policy.
Thanks
Simone

[Simone Fisher]

Hi Glynes. Here we would aggregate from date of settlement putting the two lots into joint ownership. Arrears on the garage lot would stand & we would refer the new owner back to their solicitor/conveyancer to discuss why payment wasn’t made at settlement. I’ve had a couple of these sorts of things over the years & a couple of them have been able to claim payment of the arrears not paid at settlement from some insurance they had with their conveyancer (Stewart Title I think) so its worth them discussing with them. If it remained unpaid we would commence recovery proceedings on the new owners.
Thanks,

[Simone Fisher]

Hi Dani, we have our mailing house (PML) print & post our monthly AR statements. We forward them the statements in PDF & they print, add a back page & post. We started doing this during COVID-19 lockdown as the office was closed & we weren’t able to access printers but has saved allot of time so will continue. Costs us around $200 a quarter plus the postage.

[Simone Fisher]

Hi Andrew, yes (3) from Wollondilly.
Thanks,
Simone

[Simone Fisher]

Hi Dani,
I’ve always done mine on the 1st (rates & AR). I do AR first thing (usually around 6am) so that its finished before anyone logs in & we don’t run in to trouble with anyone inadvertently raising invoices from registers.
I run rates after COB on the 1st. If you did this you would need to ensure that you keep a strict control on transactions being posted on the 1st. The only transactions that we post are the 30ths agency receipts & my team know not to post anything else. With customer service receipts for the 1st they process as usual but don’t complete their end of day update (I do this one I’ve finished the rollover).
I spend most of the 1st doing the reconciliations & reporting & run end of year roll just after 5pm & am usually all done by 6pm.
The risk is that someone posts something inadvertently & then you’ve spent the whole day reconciling & doing reports that aren’t correct for the rollover but if you can lock that down no issue. I’ve been lucky & haven’t had any issues in the past.
Good luck with EOY 🙂
Simone

[Simone Fisher]

Hi Mel,
I agree with Rob & Andrew the AO is taking a strict interpretation of sec 509 that isn’t practical & for Council’s who part year rate isn’t needed. Having said this though processing supps to 30th June & even requesting a supp list for 30th June is what I was taught some 25+ years ago was the correct process & I think was common practice by allot of Rates Clerks back in the day.

We stop processing supps & close our valuations on 30th April each year, 1. as we part year rate & can’t issue supp notices after 1 May & 2. as the Council’s that I’ve worked at wouldn’t have thought too favourably at us being Gazetted for overrating & we would most likely end up on the local news.

Many many years ago (probably 15+) I remember the OLG including this issue in one of their presentations at a conference & were advised by a number of RP’s how overrating & being reported in the Government Gazette is a big issue for Council’s.

Happy to see this will be raised with OLG & would be good to see the AO taking a practical approach to it just how auditors have for 20+ years.

Thanks,
Simone

[Simone Fisher]

Hi Brad, we have a registered PBI that own/run aged care services in our LGA. They offer independent living as well as nursing, respite, homecare & palliative care. They have been granted an exemption.

Regards,
Simone

[Simone Fisher]

Hi Chargie,
We cancel on registration of the new plan from date of registration.
Thanks,

Simone

[Simone Fisher]

Hi Lyndal, Wollondilly is applying the full 2.6% rate peg. Our new year rates have just come off public exhibition & I’m not aware of any submissions being received. Our Councillors did look briefly at not applying the rate peg but being a general valuation year our analysis showed that around 50% of our assessments would have increased due to valuation changes anyway. It was therefore decided that not increasing income by the rate peg may become lost on allot of assessments & it may be difficult to explain to ratepayers that receive an increase resulting from a valuation change.

Regards,

Simone

[Simone Fisher]

Hi Tracey, Wollondilly doesn’t collect it but it would be handy information if we received it consistently.

Regards,
Simone

[Simone Fisher]

Hi,
Just an update. We were contacted by Corina from Service NSW yesterday afternoon. Corina advised that applications will be processed through Service NSW but they don’t yet have an application process in place. She will be contacting bushfire affected Council’s over the next couple of days taking a poll on what their preferred application option is. The two options that she will be putting to Council’s are:

Option 1.
Affected Council’s provide Service NSW with a list of assessments with dwellings that have been identified as being destroyed in the bushfires & the assessments third & fourth instalments. Service NSW will make a total payment to Council’s for this & Council’s will apply to individual assessments. Council’s would advise ratepayers of these payment & refund any credits if/where required.

Option 2.
Ratepayers bring their instalment notices to Service NSW & make application for payment. Payments are remitted to Council on an individual basis or a refund is issued to the ratepayer by Service NSW where the ratepayer can prove that they have already made payment.

She did advise that Option 1 is their preferred option as they would like to avoid ratepayers being further inconvenienced by having to make an application with them.

My concern with option 1 is that some Council’s may have hundreds of affected properties & putting a list together for them may not be easy. Corina advised that she will be contacting Council’s individually for their views & Service NSW will decide on an option based on this feedback.

We also raised our requirement to apply payments to the oldest debt first & if an assessment is in arrears the Service NSW payment could not be applied to instalment 3 & 4. Service NSW will be giving this some consideration & discussion with other affected Council’s.

Hopefully further information will be received from Service NSW shortly.

Thanks,

Simone

[Simone Fisher]

Hi all, the Media Release indicates that applications will be assessed & handled by Service NSW & then they will make a payment to Council.

We received a call from Service NSW this morning & are awaiting a return call from them. Once I have further information from them I’ll post here.
Thanks,
Simone

[Simone Fisher]

Hi Cherie,

I asked Centrelink this prior to making our electronic application form live. The answer they provided is below.

“I can confirm that an electronic version of a customer’s consent to access Centrelink Confirmation eServices stored in Council’s records management system would be sufficient. As per clause 4.4 of the Centrelink Confirmation eServices terms a Business must retain, and securely store, each Customer consent record for a period of 2 years from the date the Business ceases to provide the Concession, Rebate or Service to the Customer, and maintain a filing system that enables efficient retrieval. This customer consent record can be an electronic record of the consent.”

We also scan, store & destroy the original for any hard applications we receive.

Thanks
Simone

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