Thirteen Victorian local councils and more than 100 councillors will be replaced by administrators after they failed to sign new codes of conduct in time.
Following recent changes to local government laws, councils were required to adopt new code of conduct requirements by July this year, or face being disqualified.
The Local Government Investigations and Compliance Inspectorate will appoint administrators to replace the councils for seven weeks.
"The Inspectorate found that 13 councils have not complied with the requirements and those councillors and councils, under the current legislation, will be disqualified as of 1 September 2016," chief municipal inspector David Wolf said in a statement on Monday.
"Those councils will require administrators to be appointed for a seven week period until the 2016 general council elections are decided."
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
Out of 79 Victorian councils, 13 failed to sign the codes of conduct within the 30-day time period.
One hundred and seven councillors in total will be disqualified.
A spokeswoman for the Ballarat council said governance staff employed to inform them of changes to legislation and their obligations never notified them of a time limit.
"At no point did they say we needed to sign the document," the spokeswoman told 3AW on Monday.
"It wasn't until three months after we'd actually adopted the code of conduct that it was brought to us to sign.
"At which time we signed happily and subsequently realised that it was too late."
Opposition Leader Matthew Guy said recent council decisions will be thrown into "legal limbo" because of the lack of communication by the government.
"Now the councils are going to be dismissed for a couple of weeks and all the decisions they've made for a few months beforehand will be thrown into legal limbo simply because the state government can't get this communication right to councils," he said on 3AW.
Comment has been sought from the premier.
VIC COUNCILS TO BE REPLACED:
Ballarat, Central Goldfields, Benalla, Campaspe, Cardinia, Greater Shepparton, Hobsons Bay, Frankston, Mount Alexander, Moyne, Queenscliffe, West Wimmera and Wyndham.
