[Susan Scott]

I have this morning had clarification from Treasury – Retirement Villages operated by a religious organisation or public benevolent institution are to be classified as Public Benefit Land, as per Release 2 of the Manual.

[Susan Scott]

Anyone here with MDAFs using Authority? If so, any information on how to load the split ESPL classification would be really appreciated!

[Susan Scott]

I’m GOBSMACKED! seriously???? On page 43 of the latest release Manual, Under ‘Definition of Public Benefit Land’ Item 12 – Retirement Villages operated by a religious organisation or public benevolent institution.

Then Treasury says THIS????

“The ESPL category for a Retirement Village?

ANSWER from Treasury – Retirement villages (whether operated by a commercial entity or PBI/church/charity) should be classified as Residential for the purposes of ESPL. We anticipate this to be discussed in the regulations.”
Gonna have to query this with them!!!

[Susan Scott]

Better late than never. Our waste department opened up a new service route & allowed the residents to choose whether to have the collections service or not for a period of time. After that time period expired, any new residences were not given the option but had the services assigned compulsorily. As time goes along, it is planned that for those who chose NOT to use the service be gravitatd onto the service. All bins are issued by Council & numbered, with the bin numbers being linked to the property. That way, any bins without the number stamped into them are readily identifiable.

[Susan Scott]

Thanks Ken, pretty much what I thought, but guess what? Our finance department has gone ahead & done it anyway. 🙁

[Susan Scott]

The original intending purchaser was unable to come up with the finance to pay for the property. Now that the sale has fallen through, my understanding is that the property can now be sold on the market. Is there anything to stop the original intending purchaser from making another offer to purchase through the real estate, this time at a price he CAN pay? That would at least get the property off our hands!

[Susan Scott]

I don’t think we need to worry too much – s.533 allows for a later date ‘if the Minister if of the opinion there are special circumstances’ & s.562 (4) includes ‘or by the day that is 30 days after service of the notice’. It wouldn’t take too long for the print companies to change the Council name for printing.

[Susan Scott]

Thanks Tracey, I’ll find out if we can use a similar process with Authority.

[Susan Scott]

Thanks Tracey. That’s pretty much how things OUGHT to work, IMO – however, the problem is that Authority doesn’t extract the amount outstanding from the relevant field to populate the letter template (no matter what we try!); and also letters have to be run individually each account, which is very time consuming. There has to be a quicker way.
Do you have to produce the letters individually in Pathway; or is Pathway able to select the relevant accounts & produce all the needed letters collectively?

[Susan Scott]

Hi Susan, we are on Civica – Authority.

[Susan Scott]

Oops- sorry – David :)!

[Susan Scott]

Thanks Simon. I don’t think I’d want to go down the track of suing the tenant, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t try to get the tenant to pay the rent for rates in the first place…

[Susan Scott]

Try Section 552

[Susan Scott]

We charge.

[Susan Scott]

OK, here is more information. I have a request from an executor of an estate to supply the amount of the rates & charges levied annually, going back to when the property was purchased in 1993. As these records are well prior to my starting as a rates officer, I am unable to locate the records that far back, managing only to go back to 1999. However, this raised in my mind just exactly how long we need to keep this information. What I imagine I would be looking for is the annual report of the amounts of rates and service charges raised against each property. Additionally, I am not sure what the electronic equivalent of a rate book or rate card may be – if it’s what I suspect, then I fear that this Council has not in fact retained this information, as previous software used has been decommissioned & is no longer able to be accessed.
I note that 25.9.1 refers to summary records of rateable property – the annual report of rates & charges is not a summary, it is a detailed report. Moreover, it may include charges on properties that are non-rateable but liable for service charges.
25.5.4 refers to ‘records of notices issued to ratepayers – this is closer to the mark, I think.

Des this clarify my question?

[Author]

Posts