BAD debts to the tune of $24,000 have been put in the too-hard basket as Lake Macquarie City Council writes them off.
It would have cost the council more than it could have recovered to chase up the sundry debtor accounts, and on Monday night councillors decided to wipe the slate clean.
The unrecoverable money related to four accounts, including $6,396 for a boat that caught fire at Warners Bay in August 2020 and damaged the jetty.
According to the council, it sent a letter to the owner demanding funds days later and never received a response.
In March 2021, staff apparently tried to contact the owner over the phone, through mail and online searches across an 18-month period with no luck.
It went as far as asking NSW Police for the boat owner's details which still didn't help.
"Given council has been unsuccessful in its attempts to recover the debt thus far, there appears to be no likelihood of recovering the outstanding sundry debtor. It is deemed uneconomical to recover," a report to councillors said.
A debt of $6075 was also written off related to a council contractor who supplied underground pipe and cable locating. In 2019 a sundry debtor was asked to recover the costs for incorrect electronic positioning and a redesign that was needed at Baldwin Boulevarde, Windermere Park.
The company went into administration in June, 2020 and the council deemed repayment unlikely.
The third debt came in at just more than $5300 and belonged to a council contractor who supplied, delivered and laid asphalt.
According to the council, staff investigated outstanding invoices and called and emailed the contractor - who argued they were duplicate invoices and said the debt was incorrect.
Debt recovery officers and staff spent more than a year trying to resolve the issue and have decided it is "uneconomical to recover".
The last debt was the result of a lease for a massage business at Warners Bay, which the renter signed onto in September 2017 for two years.
In 2019, the renter planned to vacate the premises and the council couldn't find an alternate lessee.
As of September that year, the council said the debtor owed $17,548. The council had a bank guarantee of $7200 which it claimed back, leaving the balance at about $10,300.
In January 2020, the council and the debtor agreed to repay that amount in monthly instalments of $500.
Three of those payments were made - along with a COVID payment from another level of government for $3968.
The council gave the debtor a partial refund of $1,968 on the basis of financial hardship - leaving the balance at $6348.
According to the council, multiple attempts to contact the debtor have been made from 2019 to 2023 with no reply and it's believed she has moved overseas.
"There appears to be no likelihood of recovering the outstanding sundry debtor," the council said in its report.
After internal consultation with the council's legal department it decided there was very little chance of recovering the debts and councillors supported writing them off at the meeting this week.
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