Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Aug 02, 2008 2:42 am When do you start to pay your council rates? When the titles are released or when settlement, for said titles, has occurred? Re: council rates 2Aug 02, 2008 9:47 am At settlement you will be charged for pro rata rates, ie the previous owner has paid the yearly rates and you will reimburse them for the proportion of the year that you will own the land (or established house).
This applies the same to sales of individual property ie single vacant blocks or established houses, or new sub-divisions where the land was previously council property or crown land or belonging to a developer. Re: council rates 3Aug 02, 2008 5:44 pm Hiya
We settle on August 14 for our apartment. Does this mean on the day or very soon after, we'll be up for a council rates bill?? Our rates are apparently $1,800 - $2,000 a year (Gold Coast, SO expensive!!!), so does that mean we'd reimburse the sellers around $800? We were hoping to have more time to pay the rates. (we've got over $8,000 in legal fees to pay right now, plus the normal home loan, plus around $6,000 in renovation costs, plus about $3,500 in moving costs...AAAGH!) How the hell did I become a senior member!? I know nothing! Re: council rates 5Aug 02, 2008 6:01 pm Grace, yes, pro rata rates will be included as part of settlement costs.
You will then get a bill for next years rates when the council posts them out. Our council works from financial years ie June 30th - June 30th next year so if yours is the same or that is the norm everywhere, and settlement date is in August, pro rata costs will be for most of the year but then you won't get another bill until next year's rates are due. Re: council rates 6Aug 02, 2008 8:34 pm Thanks for that, Helyn.
I'm a bit confused still though. Firstly, nobody's told us about this cost yet. Are we just expected to know? We've been advised of stamp duty, mortgage duty, other 50 billion legal costs, etc, but nothing about rates. Is it different on the Gold Coast perhaps? (many things do seem to be) Also, if the financial year is the same as you say, in that case does this mean that the owners would have paid from June 2008 to June 2009, and then we'd need to reimburse them for almost all of that???? Cause they'd only be owning the property for 2 months of that? Oh boy. lol Afterthought - what if the owners have been paying month to month or week to week? (you can do that around here) How the hell did I become a senior member!? I know nothing! Re: council rates 7Aug 02, 2008 8:40 pm Quote: Also, if the financial year is the same as you say, in that case does this mean that the owners would have paid from June 2008 to June 2009, and then we'd need to reimburse them for almost all of that???? Cause they'd only be owning the property for 2 months of that? Oh boy. lol Yes, that's what I mean, you would be reimbursing them for 10 months of council rates. More bad news: same applies with water rates, although these are usually charged 3 monthly but you would reimburse them for the part of the 3 month period that you own the property. As far as I know, this is the same throughout Australia, perhaps someone in Qld can confirm the system there? Re: council rates 8Aug 02, 2008 8:42 pm We got a bill for 2007/2008 rates, from the 1st June-30th June. Our settlement went through on the 24th June, so are we only meant to pay from the 24th-30th, and the estate owner pay for the rest? We couldnt get a hold of estate guy as he was on holidays, didnt get a call back from their settlement agency, and the shire hasnt been able to answer our questions. This year we are already paying 2 lots of yearly rates, so dont want to pay more than we are meant too. Re: council rates 9Aug 02, 2008 8:45 pm We sold a place in QLD a while ago and the new owners had to reimburse us on settlement, ....Sorry grace_slick, but like you said maybe they have been paying in installments. 'chelle We have a hand-over date...15/10...but I won't hold my breath! http://people-in-glass-houses.blogspot.com/ Re: council rates 10Aug 02, 2008 8:46 pm BLEGH!!
Well, see here, we can pay the council rates weekly, and the water rates are actually included in the council rates. They're not separate. (this is an apartment by the way, it could be different to a house maybe?) Anyway, it all sucks, but at least we're paid up for a whole year I guess. lol How the hell did I become a senior member!? I know nothing! Re: council rates 11Aug 02, 2008 9:16 pm When we sold a unit in March, pro rata council rates were worked out to the exact day of settlement, so, monkeyupatree, yes, I would expect that you are only responsible for the rates from 24th to 30th June.
Grace, interesting that your water rates are included in council rates, in SA they are charged separately and by separate govt's, ie council rates by local council and water /sewer rates by SA Water, a state govt dept. Re: council rates 12Aug 02, 2008 9:56 pm Helyn Grace, interesting that your water rates are included in council rates, in SA they are charged separately and by separate govt's, ie council rates by local council and water /sewer rates by SA Water, a state govt dept. That's because the Gold Coast City Council owns and operates it's own water storage (Hinze Dam and Little Nerang Dam), whereas SA Water owns and operates all of SA's urban and rural storages. mmm....donuts Homer Simpson 1956- Links: Site Costs Ready Reckoner | H1 Addiction Medical Advice | Château TDL: The Backyard Re: council rates 13Aug 03, 2008 9:21 am grace_slick about $3,500 in moving costs...AAAGH!) That sounds like a horrible moving cost! We paid $700 to move a 3 bedroom apartment (about 37 cubic metres of stuff) - and it was really tight access, no lift, lots of steps. Why is it so expensive? After 4 years - we're in! Re: council rates 14Aug 03, 2008 2:18 pm Ugh, I don't know why it's so expensive, but so far I've obtained 3 (very vague) quotes from Wridgeways, Grace and Ashton, and all of them have been around $3,000 - $3,500 and that didn't include GST OR insurance. *groan*
Also, they hadn't come out to accurately do the quote yet. That was just an online quote, and I am 80% sure I greatly underestimated the number of boxes we'd need to use. We're only moving 15 minutes away, but it's just so expensive cause I guess we have a lot of stuff. It's just a 3 bedroom apartment (on first floor so one flight of stairs) to a 2 bedroom ground floor apartment. *shrug* I don't know about cubic metres, but our place is apparently around 12 square metres or 120 metres or something like that. I guess it's so expensive cause they'd be doing everything. Packing everything up, etc. We'd pack some things, but then they wouldn't insure us apparently. I don't know. Also, we don't want the hassle of living amongst millions of boxes before we actually move. Also, neither of us drive and we both don't have QLD licenses (I have a VIC license), so we can't even really move some lighter, not so important things ahead of time to save the removalists doing it. The cost of doing that sort of thing in cabs is not worth it, you know? How the hell did I become a senior member!? I know nothing! Re: council rates 15Aug 03, 2008 2:33 pm Grace - you know that you can pack yourselves and buy your own moving insurance for a lot less!
The 2 main companies in Australia are: http://www.associatedmarine.com.au/ http://www.removalsinsurance.com.au/ I boxed everything myself - bought the cartons, paper, buble wrap etc from the removal company - and then insured it (though www.homewrap.com.au is a good place to buy from as well). Ours was about $500 but that was for removal and storage of our goods by the removalist for 2-3 months. It even covers late opening of your boxes - so if you open them a while after moving and find something broken - you can still make a claim. I got quotes from Name Brand companies like the ones you mentioned and they were very expensive! I went for a small family owned company in my area - found them in the Yellow Pages - and they were excellent. You mentioned you don't want to live in boxes before the move. We packed up 3 days before they arrived and had out just enough clothes & toiletries for 3 days. I bought disposable plates, cutlery, napkins to use or we just ate out. Do you have any friends who could help out? Invite them over - provide a slab of beer/bottles of wine, order in some pizza and it will be done in no time. For me - I'd rather save $2000 on moving and put it towards something nice and new for the house! After 4 years - we're in! Even if it's not being sub-divided and you want to keep it as Torrens title, you will still need to talk to a town planner or Council themselves, to see if they will allow… 1 11039 We've had the offer of a short term tenant whilst waiting for CDC/DA home approval and demolition for our knock down rebuild. It would achieve a pretty low rent as it's… 0 13759 |