Wellington North’s recreation department will be taking a harder look at delinquent accounts on rentals of its facilities.
Council approved a new procedure to collect overdue accounts as reported by director of recreation, parks and facilities Barry Lavers at its meeting July 15.
Although most facility users pay upfront for rentals, some, such as minor Sports, book their rental times and are billed afterwards.
“Statements are issued to customers on a monthly basis with an indication interest at 1.25 per cent will be charged after 60 days,” the account receivable policy reads.
“After 60 days of arrears the recreation support staff will contact the customer via telephone/email with a friendly reminder of the outstanding balance and record the date/time of the call,” the policy states. “Following 60 days of arrears, a statement stamped with ‘Reminder – simple interest at 1.25% per month is charged on overdue accounts,’ will be sent to all customers as a reminder that interest will start to accrue on that date.”
Facilities managers will be notified of the overdue account at this point and call the customer to hasten the payment or determine whether there are any problems making a payment.
On the third month, a registered letter with a statement attached showing the balance outstanding and the accrued interest charges will be sent indicating that “after 120 days outstanding, the account will be in default and will either be sent to a collection agency or transferred to property taxes.”
At that point the customer or organization will be informed they are not eligible to participate in future recreation programs or rentals until the balance is collected.
The policy will be in place immediately for winter user groups and will come into force for summer users on Oct. 31.
