Unpaid rates: 38 QLD properties at risk of sale by Rockhampton Regional Council

About $700,000 is owed on 38 properties where rates have not been paid for at least three years.

Rockhampton Regional Council is planning an unpaid rates auction for May/June 2024.

Up to 38 landowners in the Rockhampton Regional Council local government area are at risk of losing their properties after racking up a combined $700,000.

A report submitted in the ordinary council meeting for Tuesday, January 23 with the recommendation to sell land listed for overdue rates and charges did not contain the addresses of the properties.

The list had 40 properties however was reduced to 38 when the reported was presented to the council table.

The 38 owners and mortgagees eligible for land sale will now receive a Notice of Intention to Sell notice from council and they will have three months to pay the outstanding amount.

Overdue for three or more years

Under the Local Government Regulation 2012, section 140(2) councils have the authority to recover rates and charges through a land sale process where the amounts “have been overdue for three or more years”.

Under the Act, eligible properties cannot be removed from the list unless rates and charges, plus interest, are paid in full.

If the outstanding amounts are not paid by six months after the date of the notice, council will have authority to begin the process to sell the land by public auction to be held in May or June (2024).

The properties that went to unpaid rates auction for Rockhampton Regional Council in June 2023. 109 Edington St, Berserker, Central Hotel at 385 Lakes Creek, Koongal, and 140 Limestone Rd, Limestone.

The last unpaid rates auction process by Rockhampton Regional Council commenced in January 2023 with 50 properties initially and only three went to public auction (held in June), including the Lakes Creek Central Hotel.

The property at 385 Lakes Creek Road, Koongal, passed in at the public auction with the highest bid of $140,000 rejected as it didn’t meet the reserve.

A notice printed at the auction stated $7963.40 is owed for half-yearly rates.

Under the Act, the reserve price must be at least the market value or higher than the amount of overdue rates or charges.

According to a valuation in June 2022 accessed through property data, the land is valued at $197,500.

It is noted the council valuation could be a different value as it is required to be done independently.

The property was listed for sale publicly on August 23, 2023, and remains for sale.

Before and afters of the Central Hotel in Koongal in 2023.

The two-storey hotel, which was last open in 2016, has 10 boarding rooms upstairs and is quite dilapidated and vandalised inside with smashed glass strewn throughout the bars and holes in walls, piles and piles of rubbish and obvious signs of mess from squatters.

Other properties at the 2023 auction include 109 Edington Street, Berserker, for a price of $240,000 and 140 Limestone Road, Limestone (near Mount Morgan) for $280,000.