What happens if you don't pay your rates?

Reminder letters 

We send reminder letters after every instalment where there is still more than $100 to pay.

You can see your outstanding balance and pay any overdue amount by logging in to pay it.

Arrears

Arrears (debt) is any amount on your rates account you still owe after 30 June. The Local Government (Rating) Act 2002, obliges property owners to pay their rates. It also enables the council to recover unpaid rates from the bank as mortgagee if the property owner is in default. The Property Law Act 2007, also obliges the borrower in a mortgage to pay rates for the property.

So if you have a mortgage council can notify a bank, as mortgagee, that a property owner has not paid his or her rates, and demand that the bank pay them instead. The bank must pay the arrears. Typically, it will recover the money from the customer by debiting the amount to his or her account. It is standard practice for the terms and conditions of property loans to include a reference to a bank's right to recover money owed by customers.

In early August, we inform them the ratepayer and bank, if you do not pay the outstanding amount within 90 days, we will request that they (the mortgagee) make this payment on your behalf.

If a property is mortgage-free, our team will pursue the outstanding rates directly with the owner to try get payment or an arrangement. If this does not result in payment, we will refer your file to a debt collection agency where they will proceed with chasing up the debt using legal services that can have extra charges and worst case scenario the Local Government (Rating) Act 2002 allows us to demand the sale of a property in order to recover unpaid rates.