Belyuen Council has a reasonable rental collection program. All rents are either done as Centrelink, Council payroll or CDEP deduction. A rent debtor/creditor system by tenant is maintained on Excel in the Council Office and financial records for the whole program are maintained by the accountants.

Belyuen Council is currently developing a rent program which will record all rental income, r & m by Lot number and print out a report for Council on all tenants who have rental arrears. This will be presented to Council on a monthly basis so Council can keep a closer track on their Housing Program.

Council employed a Community Housing Manager (plus a CDEP worker to assist) who was responsible for minor r & m such as replacing doors, doorhandles, fixing up louvers and leaking taps. Major plumbing and all electrical work is undertaken by outside trade persons. Major housing repairs were done through IHMMS except in the case of emergency repairs with these being done through rental income.

In January the Housing Manager resigned and left the community. Council then employed the CDEP worker who had been assisting the Manager. This employment was CDEP/Council part time Housing Manager. This Manager resigned in May 03 to take a holiday.

Council engaged a plumber/builder to do repairs of doors/locks/leaking taps throughout the community. This was costly though efficient.

Council discussed the possibility of employing a tradesperson as the Housing Manager. It was seen as potentially more cost effective given some of the problems that had been experienced with the previous two Housing Managers. It would have also enabled community people to be placed as apprentices under the Manager. This has been put on hold until a house is available that Council could offer the person.

Belyuen Council has a policy that malicious damage done to a house has to be paid for by the person responsible for doing the damage. To date this has worked reasonable well. Repayments are slow because of people being mostly on Centrelink benefits however they are generally paid off over time. These payments are added onto a person’s rent then identified and recorded when rent records are received from Centrelink and CDEP. Often malicious damage is done by more than one person so the cost is shared between all people responsible for the damage.