Moreton Bay council demands extra money?

[poppy]

I've just received a "supplementary notice" for IP in Deception Bay Brisbane, to pay extra rates and charges for sewerage for 1/5/08 to 30/6/08.

I had already pre-paid the entire years charges as part of settlement of the property (these already paid charges are shown on the bill) and now they decide to up the rates and charge more? It's not a lot of money but I wish I could change my price after someone has already pre-paid!

Is this something to do with the change of councils in the area?

 

[marg4000]

You will probably find that the previous owners had reduced rates because they were on a pension. You refunded them the rates they had paid at settlement. You are not entitled to a pension discount therefore you have to pay the higher rate from the time you own the property, hence the amended notice.

This happened to us with an IP several years ago.
Marg

 

[poppy]

Hi Marg,

I could understand that but the previous owner was a company name (the developer) so I am sure they were not entitled to any discount. Also, we settled in July 07 so I would have expected something before now if there was an adjustment.

 

[urban cowboy]

in short yes...


Moreton Bay Regional Council is an amalgamation of three councils in the area and there is a lot of head scratching going on between the three groups as to how to manage things like rates and services so there will be some adjusting going on.

expect some big changes over the next 12 months.

 

[stumunro]

greeeeeeeeaaaaaaaattttttttttttt..... always look forward to unexpected council costs

 

[aaarghhh]

I've just received a "supplementary notice" for IP in Deception Bay Brisbane, to pay extra rates and charges for sewerage for 1/5/08 to 30/6/08.

It's only a month I suppose. I got the same bill for the same thing as well.....

Aaron

 

[wylie]

We prepay our Brisbane rates and always have a little bit left over at the end because they prefer we prepay no more than the actual charges, so we generally prepay what we paid the previous year.

This must be different though as it is just the normal account with a little amount to pay whereas the other three quarterly accounts are in credit.

 

[poppy]

I've just been looking on the council website and it says under the Caboolture section that vacant land is subject to water and sewerage charges and that these charges increase once a house is built. ie vacant land gets a discount on water and sewerage rates. However from what I can tell I've been paying the full charges for my vacant block.

Edit: Maybe the vacant land "discount" is not having to pay for any water use. They may think it is quite generous not to charge for water that is not being used

 

[brays]

Hi Poppy

We had the same extra charge applied to our IP that we built in D Bay last year. My understanding is that the rates charged at the beginning of the FY were for vacant land, so because the Caboolture District bills rates on an annual basis, once building starts and sewerage etc is connected, the council will issue a supplementary rates notice to charge the correct rates & charges to reflect the correct status of the land use.