overdue rates - who is at fault

[R377]

after 2 years of owning a property i have been hit with a massive bill including late fees. it seems the council has sent the rates notice to the investment property not my actually home address. the council are blaming my property managers and my property manager is blaming the council.

Who is at fault ? the conveyancer even ? the tenants for throwing it away ?

thanks

 

[alexlee]

You didn't notice that you haven't paid council rates for 2 years? Who did you think was paying it?

 

[The Fence]

So while you have owned this property for 2 yrs have you not been expecting rates notices....?

All our properties have had the wrong address initially, but we checked to make sure and had the corrections made..... it's up to you to make sure it's correct...PM's wouldn't bother checking...that would be too much to ask I'm sure.

Daz has a good story about checking for rates notices after not receiving any, only to find out he didn't even own the property...!!!

 

[Tuppence]

We had a similar issue with body corp fees. We bought the place just over a year ago and didn't get a body corp notice at all. I assumed we must have paid until the end of the last financial year in our settlement, so didn't worry too much.
Finally, last October I tracked them down and they'd been sending the bills to the property because that's the address they had for us. The tenants, presumably, had just thrown them out.
They issued a new bill and we had to pay the outstanding amount. Fortunately, there were no penalties, but the buck still stopped with us as the property owners.
Maybe if you talked with the council, they might agree to drop some or all of the penalty rates, given the misunderstanding?

 

[depreciator]

the council are blaming my property managers and my property manager is blaming the council.QUOTE]

If I was them, I would be blaming you. It's your property. If you're extra nice to the council they might waive the late fees.

 

[marg4000]

We always keep a close eye for rate notices, body corp etc after buying a property to ensure everything is OK.

On one occasion we didn't receive rate notices but were able to sort it out before it became a big problem.

Lesson to be learned here. With rates around $2K per year, it is strange you did not notice it. It is not the job of the property manager to chase it up.
Marg

 

[jaycee]

after 2 years of owning a property i have been hit with a massive bill including late fees. it seems the council has sent the rates notice to the investment property not my actually home address. the council are blaming my property managers and my property manager is blaming the council.

Who is at fault ? the conveyancer even ? the tenants for throwing it away ?

thanks

Did you arrange for the rates to be paid by the PM or were gyou planning to pay them yourself ?

If the PM, then I would ask the PM to sort it out and let mwe know the outcome.

If I had been expecting to pay them myself.....

 

[w0nnie]

an interesting aside, im surprised that the tenants just threw them out. When i was a tenant, anything like that id forward to the PM, i know its not my responsibility but it is in my best interest to have these bills on the place paid.

 

[rugrat]

The same thing happened to us. Two years living here, no council rates bill. We were paying the water rates and all the other bills, and once or twice we realised that we still hadn't gotten the rates notice, so DH got in touch with them to make sure they were being sent out and to make sure they had our address. "yes, yes, it is in the mail now." And then of course life goes on and you forget. We finally got the bill at the begining of Janruary. Crappy timing. Lots of interest accumulated. Address on it wrong. They had been sending it to some address we hadn't lived in for at least a year before we even settled on this house. The final address that made it to this house wasn't even correct - lucky our postman has a bit of brains between his head to work it out (we are a corner block, so they didn't even get the right street address.)

When we got the bill (finally), DH rang them back up and pointed out how we HAD updated our details with them on at least 2 occaisions. How the bills where going somewhere that didn't even makes sense. And how the bill we did receive was STILL sent to the wrong address. They agreed it was their stuff up, we were given two months to pay the bill in full, and they would waive the interest that had accrued. We have gotten this in writing and will be paying in the timeframe given.

I don't mind paying the rates, but definitely don't want to pay the interest when it was their fault we never received a bill.

Give them a ring, talk calmly and rationally and see if you can reach some kind of compromise with them.

 

[mary&mat]

Unfortunately, as other posters have suggested, I believe Council will take the view that the onus lies with you the property owner to make sure you meet your committments.

I'd also be extra nice to them & hopefully they'll waive any penalty interest.

Chalk it up to experience, pay it/arrange a payment schedule & move on

 

[Tuppence]

an interesting aside, im surprised that the tenants just threw them out. When i was a tenant, anything like that id forward to the PM, i know its not my responsibility but it is in my best interest to have these bills on the place paid.

I agree. But *sigh* it seems not everyone's as responsible as you and I .

 

[srini]

Had a similar issue about 6 months ago. Got a letter from the council's lawyers! Called council back and explained the situation. Council was nice enough to waive fees and charges.

My suggestion, be open and honest with the council and explain the situation and live with the outcome as a lesson learnt.

 

[depreciator]

Blame the missus or hubby. That often elicits sympathy.

 

[jezza]

Would you wait 2 years before checking to see if your rent had been paid? You need to fill in a form to pass this responsibility over to pm

Jezza

 

[travelbug]

Same happened to me. I thought the PM was paying it but didn't get any bill or notice from them. After a few months I rang. It was going to the rental address. They didn't forward it.

When I rang (apologetically of course) the lovely lady said don't worry about the extra charges. so I just paid what was owed.

 

[The Fence]

Yeah...agree with rugrat..councils data somehow is always wrong until you have to point it out to them....geeze...you'd think we'd get a bonus discount seeing as though we tell them where to send the bill....

You'll be right now it's sorted and as someone said 'chalk it up to experience'....you'll be far better for it in the long run.....

There always seems to be some data that gets messed up at transaction time...I'm still trying to get the bank to send statements to our new address....after informing them at least 3 times now by: at the counter, telephone and internet banking.....what does it take....???

 

[chilliblue]

Your legal advisor who undertook the sale has not done their job properly.

You as the owner have not done yours.

I agree with Jezza that you would not have waited 2 years for the rent and yet you are complaining about missing a crucial component of this property.

Where were the questions about the notice payments when you were doing your taxes?

Chalk it up to experience and learn from it.

 

[Terryw]

after 2 years of owning a property i have been hit with a massive bill including late fees. it seems the council has sent the rates notice to the investment property not my actually home address. the council are blaming my property managers and my property manager is blaming the council.

Who is at fault ? the conveyancer even ? the tenants for throwing it away ?

thanks

You are at fault. It is your responsibility.

This happened to me many years ago, and the council took me to court and got a default judgment - that was the first I heard about it. So I think you are getting off lightly.