Dying Rockingham man granted last-minute reprieve after council threatened to seize home over unpaid rates

A dying Rockingham man was granted a last-minute reprieve overnight when councillors decided not to take his home to recoup unpaid rates and legal fees. The City of Rockingham council met behind closed doors on Tuesday night to decide whether to seize the terminally ill man’s home. After more than an hour of debate, mayor Deb Hamblin left the chamber and announced the motion had lapsed. It is the latest chapter in a legal saga that began more than a decade ago. The city’s dispute with resident Dale Parker has been ongoing since 2010. In 2011, Mr Parker’s rates notice for the 2010-11 financial year was more than $8000 — today the city claims he owes $100,456.11. The blowout in what Mr Parker owes the city came from legal fees incurred after the city took him to court to recover the unpaid rates. In 2019, Magistrate Leanne Atkins found at Rockingham Court that Mr Parker owed $13,232.62 in rates and ordered he pay legal costs of $62,344.96 as well. Local governments are given significant power for the recovery of unpaid rates under the Local Government Act and can pass on any legal costs incurred in recovering rates. When Mr Parker appealed the 2019 decision at the District Court in 2021, Judge Fiona Vernon acknowledged that local governments were given “greater rights than other litigants”. Ms Vernon found the magistrates court made a mistake by refusing to ask for documents relevant to the city’s costs and based the costs solely on invoices without deciding if they were reasonable. However, the court maintained that local governments could recover legal costs, but that the costs sought must be within reason. The agenda for the City of Rockingham’s September 24 meeting revealed the city planned to sell Mr Parker’s home to recover $100,456.11 owed. Real Estate website’s estimate the value of the property to be anywhere from $550,000 to $740,000. Mr Parker told the Sound Telegraph in 2022 that he offered the city a lump sum of $20,000 in 2018 to finally put the matter to bed after a significant battle with cancer. The offer was rejected. At the time Mr Parker said he did not want to pay any further rates until he knew how much he owed in legal fees. The city did not respond to the Sound Telegraph in time for publication but referred reporters to its comments made in 2022, saying the city did not comment publicly about residents’ personal financial circumstances. “The City of Rockingham has over 58,000 ratepayers and maintains ongoing communications with them regarding their rates and payment options,” the response read. “Payment can be made weekly, fortnightly, monthly or in two instalments or four instalments, with a variety of payment methods available, including cash, cheque, BPAY, credit and debit card. “Further, the city uses all reasonable means to accommodate ratepayers’ individual circumstances, including agreements for bespoke payment arrangements. The least preferred option for the city is to commence legal proceedings.” At a previous committee meeting, councillors Mike Crichton, Robert Schmidt, Leigh Liley, Caroline Hume and Craig Buchanan voted in support of the motion to sell the property. Cr Kelly Middlecoat voted against the sale. In 2023, in relation to the City of Kwinana selling properties to recover rates, Rockingham mayor Deb Hamblin said the city would use “all available means to avoid selling properties,” calling it “the least preferred method of recovering unpaid rates”.