GOONDIWINDI Regional Council is calling in the professionals to help recover outstanding debts and arrears. There will, of course, be no broken kneecaps but a debt recovery agency, Recoveries and Reconstruction (Australia) Pty Ltd will be employed, to help Council get its money back.
“They won’t charge us a fee for their work until a matter goes to ourt,” said Director of Finance and Corporate Services Jason Quinnell.
“The aim is to help people work things out before it gets to that stage. We’re having more and more problems. Around 255 debtors are just not responding to our letters and our phone calls,” Mr Quinnell said.
“We’re just not doing some of these people any favours. The interest they have to pay on the debt is 11 percent, and it just mounts up the longer they leave it,” he said.
Currently 368 rate assessments are still in arrears. Once you include unpaid water bills, fines and the like, the percentage of all debts in arrears was around 5.3percent, which wasn’t “too bad” for a council of this size Finance Manager Brad Pyne told Council.
“Why would these people take any notice of the debt collectors, if they’re not taking any notice of us?” asked Cr. Rick McDougall.
“It’s a psychological thing. They understand it’s serious and lawyers could be involved,” said Mr Pyne. “We want them to work something out, before they get in real trouble,” agreed Mr Quinnell. If rates are unpaid for three years, Council can send the rated property to auction to get the money back.
“We need to get them onto a program with a payment plan, so let’s get this up and running,” said GRC Mayor, Cr Graeme Scheu.
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