Tony Zorzanello will have to pay the outstanding fees and charges on his recently purchased areas seven and eight at Dalton Park within 30 days if he does not want to face foreclosure, Griffith City Council decided this week.
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If the fees (which remained unpaid by the previous lease holders) are not paid, council will call for expressions of interest to licence the areas, with the new licence holder responsible for the outstanding fees and charges.
This amendment came from Councillor Bill Lancaster after the initial recommendation was rejected.
Cr Christine Stead was against making Mr Zorzanello pay the outstanding fees.
“That would be like buying a house and you have to pay the outstanding rates that belong to someone else,” Cr Stead said.
“I just don't think that Mr Zorzanello should have to pay someone else's debt.
“He wants to lease it and he should start from scratch, it's not his fault that there's all this outstanding money, he wants to take it over because he's a horse lover, why should he have to pick up someone else's debt?”
Cr Simon Croce echoed these sentiments and spoke against the recommendation.
“I don't see the sense in penalising the new lessee,” he said
“He (Mr Zorzanello) just wants to take it on and start paying for it.
“I think we should just start fresh, start chasing the money up off the other people because if you put it out to lease and whoever wants to lease also has to pay the outstanding debt, then people might just say just bugger it and we won't get any money then.”
Cr Alison Balind said that Mr Zorzanello wasn’t completely in the right either.
“I hear what everyone's saying about having to pay someone else's debt and I don't disagree with that, however, we've been advised, lease holders as a part of their lease are supposed to contact council before they sell the property,” she said.
“Really, he hasn't done the right thing by council.
“We have processes in place and if people are going to bend the rules to suit yourself, which is what's happened in this case when these two lessees decided, I guess, that they want to get rid of their lease without paying council their dues, it's a case of buyer beware and he wasn't aware of what the rates were.
“It's his purchase and he's been a lease holder at Dalton Park so he'd be aware of the condition of the lease.”
Cr Dal Broi gave his thoughts on the matter.
“I think the staff have done everything to try and recoup the rates from the previous licensees,” he said.
“The way I see it, Mr Zorzanello has paid the previous leases for the structures there and if he wants this to go through, either Scott Young and Sharon Denson have to come up with the money, or he does.”