Residents urged to check rates notices

The Central Highlands Regional Council is asking residents to double check the details on their half-yearly general rates notices, the first to be issued through the organisation’s new corporate software system.

The OneCouncil solution was rolled out in November last year, replacing council’s outdated programs with one integrated, cloud-based system.

CEO Scott Mason said as with the implementation of any new technology, there can be teething problems and a project this big was no exception.

‘This software switchover is the most significant transformation our council has gone through since amalgamation,’ he said.

‘Twenty-two million records were migrated to the new system and unfortunately some of this data has not translated correctly.

‘As a result, around 800 notices issued in the first batch on 4 March 2020 were sent to previous postal addresses associated with the ratepayer.

‘About another 200, sent out in the second batch on 30 March 2020, show incorrect ‘brought-forward’ balances.’

Mr Mason said around 16,000 notices were issued each year, so the majority of customers would not be affected.

‘If you don’t have a brought-forward balance on your notice, and your address is correct, then this will not impact you,’ he said.

While council’s rates team are contacting all affected customers directly, Mr Mason said residents could also report any abnormalities on their notice by calling 1300 242 686.

‘If you have overpaid your notice, a refund will be processed as soon as practicable or the payment can remain on the account as a credit,’ he said.

‘If the account has been short paid due to this error, then we will notify the ratepayer of the additional payment required and a full reinstatement of the 10 percent discount will be allowed.’

Another 112 notices are still being processed and are not expected to be issued until May.

‘We appreciate these technical errors are an inconvenience, but rest assured we are working through all of these issues to ensure this doesn’t happen again,’ Mr Mason said.