Lismore Council

Complaints

I tried to request a waste voucher recently, via online. Provided a recent utility bill for proof of residency & address. <br /><br />I have rented a dwelling where i am for over 14 years. Email response was to call re an issue. Thought it was perhaps for more evidence of length of time here.<br /><br />Here, I have rented for over 14 years, at 914 Dunoon rd Modanville NSW. It is a little unique perhaps in that the farm owners over the decades were able to build a total of 5 residences along the short farm driveway in. My residence, is technically a "removable" being a huge ole caravan & half portable "on wheels". On my utility bills which I requested to be hardcopy posted, it's always been "caravan". <br />The son of the farm owners, with their blessing, put my dwelling here about 32 years ago, initially to house any apprentice to train. It is situated under the large extension of roofing from one of the big farm sheds here. I was last on the old mains water line...was, but have been without running water since May 2023 & slowly trying to clean up, cull & sort for when I eventually am able to leave. During the worst housing catastrophe, in the worst region. Single 63 yr old female, no super or big savings.<br /><br />(Aside, as I'm tired & often literally sick of the endless nightmare here,& now quite literally AM A VICTIM... the daughters of the old lady property owner since her husband died, gained sneaky power of attorney over her. Over the one sons guardianship status 4yrs ago, abusing the court system & lucking out on a judge who refused to watch cctv footage showing he did not in fact lash out at a certain sister when they were all arguing under the ole lady's carport!! She did. But they managed to get a DV order against him. So began, 5yrs now?<br /> saga of ruining him for vengeance of inheritance of the land. Only son getting the land i don't condone, but gather all the daughters were given free houses when moved out, brand new cars, weddings paid for, big chqs for whatever over the decades. They got a new mains water put in May 2023. One reason being to have seperate meters at each residence thinking, wrongly, they could sell the property before the old lady died, with her shunted off to care facility quite quickly. When the son & his nurse partner were prepared to have her at theirs when time came. As "property managers" then, they made it so the new water mains didn't go to the his truck sheds, the second last town mains water point down the driveway in. <br /><br />As he had also with parents blessing built large sheds decades ago on this farm to run his trucking, automotive business from. This was done to financially ruin him basically.<br />Forgive my saga sob story but I'm starting to feel cursed, let alone victim by this toxic place. I say all this, as i am, was, the last on the end of the mains water..... As the son was technically my landlord, they were able to dump all responsibility on him to sort me having running water. What they did was illegal according to tennant advocacy, especially re cutting water to a running business but they got away with it. They have tentacles in council which cannot be proved nor should have affected me so. NORTAS said i could sue for a couple of grand for sufferance, like i needed one iota more of stress. <br /><br />And the instigator sister of this trickle down nightmare for all this was a councillor. Nancy Cassan-Zambelli. Until she was forced to quit, or it go public ....with a huge payout mind you, when she was reported to police & council for verbal abuse & harassment of 2 people in front of their 2 children, out in public who were trying to apply to set up a business in town. Let alone previously cautioned for lashing out physically at some other councillor who was not right wing conservative minded as she & the other sister's are. Evangelicals too i believe. <br />She just moved herself into a vacated rental roadside about 4 or 5 yrs now, & the ole lady directly opposite, her mum, did not want her there at all & quite quickly went down hill. Bruno her son was helpless to intervene due to various factors including what sounded like a useless lawyer. He got too ill to fight anyway.<br /> <br />So. As everyone is pretty much waiting for poor ole lady to die, so the property can be sold by the now 2 power of attorney daughters, her son can't even get her out of care to his home, he as my landlord didn't want to spend big on getting tanks plumbed in for me. He lost business obviously too for a long time.<br />Small mercy is a tiny garden tank 30m away, i ported water from for ages & then hassled for a little pump to be able to fill container from the carport tap. He kindly told me to stop paying rent but I still do just less. I have been without running water since May 2023. I just use a ft of rent money if the wee tank is run too low from no rain. $300 base fee for actual $25- 30 of water....So, the stress of this toxic place, combined with housing catastrophe, combined with nearest renter neighbour, 30m away being allowed to have South African guinea fowl, the 2nd loudest fowl after peacocks for over a year, until her "kids had had enough", didn't matter this homebody was literally driven to the point of insanity to consider jail time for "destruction". I am an empathetic courteous & once reserved person by nature but not anymore. I tell this nightmare whenever I can. Buck passing from all & any authority in my attempts re water cut off, cos it was "a rural property". <br /> And. The property managers hate me cos must have overheard me dissing them, usually simply in agreement, with the ole lady who i used to drop in on where she always sat out under her carport. They had put in cctv & listening device to monitor all conversations with the lies to authority relevant to the saga, that they were concerned about the brother abusing her. Nothing could have been further grom the truth. Especially according to another tennant & friend of the owners & son at least, of over 25yrs here! I just always forgot there were recordings being made. <br />They even tried to evict me over "council unapproved dwelling" but didn't realise it being on wheels etc, didn't allow it. <br /><br />All this, all this endless waking nightmare!!! & now a major hassle over a $75 waste voucher. I'm on DSP & even though I pay below market rent is not the point re $$$)<br /><br />And so back to the main point! , I called council & after about 30 minutes of ridiculous insane confusion from their end, the nice enough customer service person said she had to decline my request. As, "I don't want to send it to the wrong address", ultimately it seemed.<br />Pretty much due to what i could gather was her seeing discrepancy in allotment of postal street number versus council maps property number. Plus her looking up on Google maps did not show the road number supplied being 914, but as 919... I think, such insanity i forget now. <br />My Gmaps is not updated for ages, but typing in 914 Dunoon rd, same day, certainly was "located".<br />Eventually after giving the actual property owners name, Doreen Zambelli, she described what she could see on Google maps, satellite i can only assume as she not only said yes Bruno Zambelli automotive shows up. She asked if it was opposite the Modanville primary school showing up. More or less i replied but it's down 100m say from their outer fence...! She said she could see an orange roofed house, which is one of 2 at front of the property & whatever else on & on. <br />I explained how my abode was tucked under the large farm shed roof extension etc etc etc. <br /><br />A confusion in names places re Bruno Zambelli, my landlord remember, not the ole lady, may have due to his actual title seperated & bought off the parents, property from the farm decades ago, is next postbox up the road. <br /><br />All this should not have been of any issue whatsoever. Having proof of bills sent here. I said I can provide length of time here if needed but that was not an issue. I explained when she indicated.... not wanting to give me the voucher for the wrong address, that from the mail going into the one postbox at the road, that another tennant grabs any rare mail to me & brings it down for a chat. That although I believed the other residences have a letter preceding 914 Dunoon rd, like a, b, c, mine on such as utility bills has always just had "caravan". <br />The customer service officer was pleasant enough but even she did not seem to understand the discrepancy in this road address number v council mapping number v Gmaps address"number".<br /><br />Her final recommendation was to go into the council office. By this point I was literally getting a headache & told her as politely as possible... You must be kidding...go through all this again with either you or worse a fresh to it service person!! How is it going to be any different, to be resolved. <br />I did consider writing an email addressed to the general manager for council. But just happened to see this link when I keyed in for "complaints to Lismore nsw council". <br />I've already written to him regarding pathetic, zero, regulation for noise pollution from the neighbours nightmare noise torture from the guinea fowl saga. All he did was tell the enforcement officer to get out here of which was a waste of time due to "rural property" buck passing. It's not an MO, it is like a town street spread out a little. So I considered that this 3rd party help would perhaps be the lesser of any further stress for me over a pathetic $75 waste voucher request to start my long delayed clear up accumulated stuff under the carport. Long delayed due to the waking endless nightmare here. Let alone the endless mould as this dwelling should not have been placed where it is with no air con to help keep its sponge like structural issues dry, no exhaust fan, & almost endless paralysis tick swarms just for the final throw in of FML! <br /><br />Hopefully you can resolve this ridiculous issue for me without me having to speak or write one more word to anyone at council. I should ask 60minutes if they need an underdog story. <br />I can actually afford to spend $75 at the tip. I don't gamble or drink am frugal most my life. That is not the point.<br />Yours sincerely & utterly beyond incredulous, Karen Guy