Lachlan and Hannah Gorrie live in Tatura and are both listed on the deed for their home, which has a swimming pool.
Pool owners in Victoria must update their compliance certificates every four years to ensure the barriers around their pools are safe and meet legal requirements.
When they failed to renew their pool safety compliance certificate before the deadline, the couple received two infringement notices from Greater Shepparton City Council.
Lachlan said that he thought they were just duplicate notices for the same fine, but once the couple looked closer, they realised they were both being fined separately.
The fine for failing to renew in time is just over $400, which means that as joint owners, the Gorrie household is being fined over $800.
Lachlan said that they recognised their responsibility.
“I’m not looking to get out of a fine,” he said.
“It doesn’t seem just that the council can issue two fines for the same offence.”
When the couple went to the council to contest the second fine, Lachlan said they were not given the opportunity to talk to someone who could help them with the issue.
The couple were given only standard responses and were unable to escalate the matter.
“You get nowhere with it, you feel like you’re ignored and not listened to,” Lachlan said.
Council has confirmed that this was not a mistake, and its normal procedure is to issue separate fines to all joint owners of a property.
The legality of this is unclear.
The relevant legislation does not contain any mentions of whether this practice is allowed.
Multiple government departments were contacted for comment, but none could provide a definitive answer.
Row Florence is a building inspector in northern Victoria who has inspected over 3000 properties across seven municipalities.
Ms Florence said 17 of her clients in Greater Shepparton had received multiple fines issued to the same household for the same offence.
She said the City of Greater Shepparton was the only municipality where she had seen this happen, and it had only been happening since last year.
In a letter to a councillor, which received no response, Ms Florence described the practice as counterproductive to goodwill and “a highly punitive financial burden”.
“Doubling the fine based on how many names are on a title is unreasonable,” Ms Florence said.
Ms Florence has also found that many people who have been fined did not receive any reminder letters.
Council has confirmed that its normal process is to send a reminder letter four weeks before expiry and follow-up correspondence if there is no response.
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