MELTON Council is involved in a review of financial hardship policies after a report confirmed it was one of the municipalities most likely to sue residents for unpaid rates.
The council will also provide contact details for community legal centres in its initial letters of demand, after previously indicating it was unwilling to do so.
A Federation of Community Legal Centres (FCLC) report last week stated the number of Victorian court claims for unpaid rates had tripled in the past eight years.
The report claims residents having trouble paying their rates were being sued at “alarming” levels. Victorian councils now sue more than 6000 people a year. Almost all cases were for amounts less than $10,000.
A total of 159 Brimbank ratepayers were taken to court last financial year, down from 255 in 2009-10. The number of Melton ratepayers pursued through the courts increased to 394, up from 325 the previous year.
When Melton truck driver Ian Bishop’s work hours were trimmed, he and his wife fell about $2500 behind in paying their rates.
Melton Council took them to Sunshine Magistrates Court, where Mr Bishop offered to repay $25 a week. The council’s solicitors refused and demanded at least $75 a week.
“We’ve admitted the bill is there,” he said. “We’ve never shied away from it, but all we want is a fair shake at being able to try and fix it.”
The FCLC report said many councils were too quick to sue without exploring alternatives and investigating if residents were experiencing genuine financial hardship. This meant that legal costs and court fees were added to the overall debt, making it more difficult for ratepayers to pay up.
The federation’s executive officer, Hugh de Kretser, said: “We’re not trying to say people shouldn’t pay their rates. Of course they should, but there’s an alternative to suing.
“The experience of other sectors [such as utility companies] has shown that a responsible, ethical debt-collection policy is not only the right thing to do, but it can more effectively collect revenue.”
Mr de Kretser said the most litigious Victorian councils were those in growth areas and country areas, including Melton and Wyndham.
As reported by the Weekly in October, Brimbank Melton Community Legal Centre principal solicitor Khanh Nguyen said he had asked councils to mention the not-for-profit community legal centre when notifying ratepayers of their arrears.
Melton CEO Kel Tori said the council would now incorporate this advice in its notices. The council is also part of a new Municipal Association of Victoria working group that will review hardship policies statewide. “Once the working group has determined on a best-practice template for use by local government, council will review its hardship policy in light of that template,” Mr Tori said. —with Miki Perkins
