Central Coast Council to sell 123 properties due to unpaid rates

All avenues have been exhausted and now Central Coast Council has made a final call on whether to sell 123 properties with years of unpaid rates.

Central Coast Council will look to auction off 123 properties with years of outstanding rates.

At Tuesday night’s council meeting, Administrator Rik Hart voted in favour of selling the properties to recover more than $1.7 million in unpaid rates and charges.

Mr Hart said the sales were a last resort, with all over avenues to retrieve the unpaid rates exhausted.

“We understand that some members of our community are suffering from genuine hardship, and for those behind on rates in that circumstance our teams have worked with them to plan repayments,” he said.

“However, more than half of the properties targeted in this sale have outstanding rates for more than five years, and all other attempts for council to address this has failed.

Central Coast administrator Rik Hart will decide whether to pursue the sales and seek legal advice.

“It also includes 50 vacant properties that are more than one year in arrears and have not provided an application for genuine hardship or entered into an arrangement that meets council guidelines for payment.

“In such a dire financial situation, we can no longer expect other ratepayers to subsidise these unpaid properties.”

The move comes as council was recently successful in an application to the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal for a temporary three-year 15 per cent rate rise in an effort to generate $70.2 million in revenue.

The council has accumulated more than $565 million in debt over the past four years.

According to the council’s report, under the Local Government Act (LGA), it is allowed to “proceed with sale of land, vacant, commercial and residential to recover outstanding rates and water”.

The properties in danger remain confidential, however in the former Gosford council area there are 25 vacant lots, two business lots and 50 residential lots which could be sold.

Central Coast Council could sell as many as 123 properties owned by people who have failed to pay their rates. Picture Sue Graham

It’s a similar story for the former Wyong area with 25 vacant lots, seven business and 14 residential lots which could be sold. The residential and business lots from both areas had outstanding rates for five years, while the vacant lots have had overdue rates for more than one year.

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“There is over $3m currently outstanding in council rates,” the council report states. “It is proposed that council proceed with the sale of land as permitted. Council could expect to recover outstanding rates of $1,787,624”.

The council says that it has exhausted all methods of recovery for the overdue rates, which have included outsourcing to external legal providers.

Vacant properties, residential and commercial lots are all on the chopping block.

The council will not be selling off land owned by pensioners, however if they did it would be worth $2.2m.

An Office of Local Government NSW representative confirmed private land can be sold by a council if a landowner fails to pay rates for five or more years.

The source told the Express Advocate an extensive resolution process is required before a decision is made.

Meanwhile, a local government source said the council would be required to enter into legal proceedings in court as a creditor before the property could be sold by the NSW Sheriff’s Office.

She said there were examples of private land sales from other NSW councils across the state.

“It is completely legal and, following a lengthy resolution process, actually happening quite regularly,” she said.

The source said Central Coast Council could sell the property for market value, retaining all profits after legal and real estate fees are paid.

The council stated that the auction dates for any sale would be set early in the 2021/22 financial year.

The sale of land due to overdue rates is separate to the council’s asset sale program which is still out for public comment. The program has identified $90m worth of assets to potentially sell with the hope to sell $60m to help with the financial crisis.