Council cruelty

At 72 years of age, pensioner Alan never thought he’d be living on just $20 a day and face losing his house.

But he is, and it all started when the local council put his home up for sale without telling him.

Statement from Clarence Valley Council general manager Ashley Lindsay

Privacy considerations prevent council from speaking about the circumstances of individual ratepayers.

All information about the sale of properties is available at www.clarence.nsw.gov.au through the minutes of meetings. See item 15.205/17 in October 2017, item 15.221/17 in November 2017 and 15.046/18 in March 2018.

Information was also published in the February 16, 2018, edition of the NSW Government Gazette (p655).

https://gazette.legislation.nsw.gov.au/so/download.w3p?id=Gazette_2018_2018-18.pdf

The sale of land for unpaid rates is covered by the Local Government Act NSW 1993 http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdb/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/lga1993182/s713.html

Council aims to work cooperatively with ratepayers to help them with any difficulties they might have in meeting their payments. It is only after five years of non-payment of rates that council will take action to sell properties to recover unpaid rates.

Council relies on the payment of rates from ratepayers to keep the community functioning. All ratepayers have a responsibility to the community they live in to pay rates that are owed.