Council suspends builders’ fines

By Sarah Schwager
CASEY builders lobbed with thousands of dollars of fines for other people’s mess can rest easy for the time being after council decided to suspend all action on the fines.
At Tuesday night’s council meeting, a matter of urgent business arose to immediately suspend actions on fines issued to all builders working in Casey until a review of council’s local law is undertaken.
Deputy mayor Kevin Bradford said over the last two weeks, he and councillor Mick Morland had had meetings with builders who were upset at the amount of fines they had received recently.
He said the problem arose out of a possible glitch in council’s local law in which builders were issued a fine at the same time as a letter of compliance.
Cr Morland said other municipalities gave builders 24 hours to fix the problem before a fine was issued.
“How can they comply if they already have a fine?” he said.
Cr Morland said the builders were upset because they were often being fined for things they had not done.
“They are getting fines for a hole in the fence made by kids, or for people emptying their bins at the building site on the weekend.”
Cr Bradford said the last thing council wanted was the cost of the fines being passed on to those buying the homes.
Cr Morland said at one meeting 35 builders turned up and if the problem was not fixed there could be a class action against council, causing unnecessary court costs to council.
A working group of councillors, council officers and a representative group of builders will now meet to discuss a possible amendment of the local laws.