''Un-Paid Rates''..

Brisbane's heritage-listed, crumbling riverside mansion Lamb House to be sold by council over unpaid rates

It will be interesting to see what price this property sells for in inner Brisbane..

 

Ultimately don't mess with the government (Federal, State or Local). They will win in the end because they make the rules.

What many people don't know is that unpaid council rates and other taxes take priority over pretty much everything else, including a mortgage with the bank. This is why banks take rates & ATO defaults very seriously, but they generally don't care so much about telephone bill defaults.

 

My friend bought a townhouse which owner didn't pay rates for a few years and still lived there. Not only the council could auction the house, the owner was evicted after the sales was sealed. All other legal and admin costs had to be paid out of the proceeds too. Then you realised how expensive the salaries were.

 

Lawyers aren’t cheap. Neither are debt collectors.

 

Of the three generations that have owned this property the last 2 must have done nicely selling off the surroundling land.

Looks like the last generation has spent what was left, and with no other form of "income" has run out of options !

It is a shame that with historic places like these that council can keep increasing the rates year on year to the point the current owners couldn't afford to maintain it let alone pay the rates

 

Rates are the same amount in the dollar for everyone - but those with valuable property pay more because of that.

What makes you think that the owner can’t afford the rates?

 

I went for a walk past that property today,and when you look at the view from the block it's unique..

 

A bit of insight here of the backstory, what a shame such a beautiful home.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=656737255207417

 

So not to do with affordability by the sounds of things - she just doesn’t want to pay her rates because Council has refused her a permit to build a cafe/conference Centre on part of the site!

She wants the building condemned!

It was left to her and her husband by an aunt - and she moved out 4 years ago after a ceiling collapsed. That would have been the time to do some repairs!

Then squatters moved in.

 

There's a bit of a rumoured story to it all I believe, and it seems to make some sense.
I've added some video of the home's internals below, it has really nice features inside.

 

Such a shame that such a majestic property has been let get to this state.

 

Yes, it really is.

From the few video's I have seen there isn't any visable damage from vibration/nearby rock breaking as claimed by the owner....

There's far more "damage" occurring just from the holes in the roof !!!!

The state really should step in (buy it at public auction) and restore it to retain a small part of the area's history (new local MP offices maybe )

 

I'd heard that the council sold them part of a public park to build the trophy home that Joy Lamb wanted for her development.

Even though BCC got caught out buying 3 blocks of land at Mt Gravatt with 6mil of bush preservation levy funds (no bush land at all on the blocks BTW) and then sold parts of the blocks off for an undisclosed amount, they claim it's an expression of interest to buy the Lamb house.

It could have been a possibility that the original rock crushing cracked the Lamb house, that whole cliff face is solid rock and vibrations travel. The roof falling in on Joy Lamb's head makes sense as the ceiling in those old homes used to be plastered horse hair and when it gets old it becomes very fragile.

 

" Conflict of interest" I meant above sorry.

 

The person that built one of the surrounding houses I’ve been led to believe.