IF YOU have failed to pay your rates in the last five years, there is a good chance Cobar Shire Council is about to sell your land right out from under you.
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Council confirmed this week it would look at selling off land with outstanding rates dating back five to 100 years, thanks to a special provision written into the Local Government Act.
The council is poised to hand down a report on a long list of properties with accumulated outstanding rates of about $200,000.
General manager Gary Woodman said council wanted to sell the individual pockets of land, but conceded some blocks had outstanding rates dating back 100 years.
"A good percentage of these blocks were part of estates dating back to the 1850s," he said.
"We've have had great difficulty in locating the owners, or any living descendants of some of these original estates and we can't keep sending out rate notices to fictitious addresses."
The general manager described the move as sufficient to a "tidy up" of of council's rates department.
The matter was discussed in closed council last week, but a report is expected in the coming weeks.
