Late fees waived

By Kelly Yates
CASEY council is running a fee waiver initiative this month, giving residents the opportunity to pay their outstanding fines without additional late fees.
This is the first time the City of Casey has participated in the fee waiver scheme, allowing those with outstanding infringements, lodged by the City of Casey with the Department of Justice, Sheriff’s Office, to settle their outstanding penalties at lesser cost.
City of Casey community development director Sophia Petrov said the initiative encouraged the recovery of outstanding debts that people may have otherwise chosen to ignore.
“If a person has outstanding infringements lodged with the Infringements Court, they may be eligible to have the lodgment fee, enforcement order costs, and the warrant issue fee waived,” Ms Petrov said.
“These costs are payable in addition to the cost of the infringement itself. However, it is important to note that during the fee waiver, the person will still need to pay the original infringement penalty amount plus the cost of the penalty reminder notice. These fees and costs cannot be waived.”
Casey council is strongly encouraging residents to pay their infringements without incurring late fees.
The council is one of nine councils to recently join the Brumby Government’s fee waiver scheme, taking the total number of participating councils to 20.
Deputy Premier Rob Hulls said the public’s response to the fee waiver had been very promising so far, with a significant number of people taking up the opportunity to deal with their fines.
“There has been a surge in the number of people inquiring about their fines since the waiver began on 2 February, with more than 55,000 calls taken in response to the fee waiver and 130,000 hits on the fines website, up from an average of 35,000,” he said.
“Fine defaulters have less than one month left to wipe fees off their fines before the fee waiver ends. This gives fine defaulters an ever greater opportunity to act on their fines instead of simply hoping they will go away.”
The fee waiver scheme ends on 19 March.