2014-12-15 General Committee Agenda

GENERAL COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                               15 DECEMBER 2014


While at first glance this may provide significant “administrative challenges”, the majority of these
can be overcome. Specifically:

 It is possible to reconstruct the levy surplus balances applying to each financial year (see
   below);
 As such, it is possible to identify how much of the reserve balance applies to each financial
   year;
 It will be possible to deal with all existing owners very simply with a credit to be applied to the
   January rates notice;
 For existing ratepayers, it is also relatively simple to identify the length of time (based on
   current Council records) that they have owned the property which will enable an exact
   calculation to be made as to the extent of their refund (e.g. a ratepayer may have owned the
   property since 1 January 2005 and so would be entitled to refunds from the surplus for each
   year from that time). These can be calculated reasonably easily; and
 Based on a brief review of property turnover in the estate, this will deal with a component of
   the levy reserve balance (over 30%).

Noosa Waters
Lock and Weir Reserve Summary
                        Balance
2000/01        $         77,283
2001/02        $        138,570
2002/03        $        210,771
2003/04        $        248,004
2004/05        $        281,264
2005/06        $        383,215
2006/07        $        455,224
2007/08        $        560,481
2008/09        $        602,564
2009/10        $        672,983
2009/10        $        714,548
2010/11        $        693,408
2011/12        $        716,650
2012/13        $        713,357
2013/14        $        725,818
2013/14 (NSC) $         731,873

For the remainder of the levy balance, previous owners would need to be identified. Council’s
records of previous ownership are available therefore it should be possible to identify these,
albeit time consuming. More problematical is to identify where the previous owners currently
reside so that refunds can be provided.

In the first instance, the balance of the levy which is not refunded to current owners would be
placed into a Council trust account and, over time, previous owners identified and contacted in
relation to the refund. Any unclaimed funds would be dealt with in accordance with the relevant
legislation in relation to unclaimed trust funds if necessary.

While not ideal from an administrative perspective, this approach will provide Council with legal
protection from any argument that it has not dealt with the surplus correctly. It also addresses the
fact that the surplus is no longer required.




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