Charging for water usage

Its ridiculous that we have to pay for renters to use water in QLD. surely a law could be brought in for them to pay half. Absolutely water usage would drop if that were the case.

 

No, there should be no laws or rules for how landlords charge for water, landlords should not charge for water !

Suppliers of services should charge users with own bill, just as happens with gas and electricity, it is a mess us having to be in the middle.

 

100% Agreed.

I believe Victorian tenants are charged water directly, but the rest of us make do with having it tied to rates.

 

IMHO, tenants should foot the entire bill ie both supply & disposal.

 

Absolutely. They do this in Vic, I've lobbied for it here and they said they would have to hire a credit/arrears Dept

 

In a perfect world that is the best and it would be awesome, but would require individual meters for all apartments. Try getting that through the BC... hey owner occupier, i want you to fork out 3k so i dont have to pay for water... It will get shot down.

if an environmental lobby group organised it could present data to the govt, local or state, to show how non individual metered places use more water.

 

As with everything else, cheapest method/most profitable for the developer (& service authorities/meter readers) is a single service utilising common pipes. The construction cost would increase as well as the space devoted to services risers if each unit were to be serviced individually.

 

Confirmed tenant is charged directly for usage in Vic. No hassles to owner apart from 1/4ly supply & annual parks charges.

 

In my previous PPoR (Brisvegas) - Our set of 5 townhouses were charged a 'total bill, divided by 5' system - I was not happy that I was being charged for myself and one small child (with no dishwasher, and very limited overall water consumption) the same amount of money for water as the 4 mid-20's party animals, with many overnight guests, who lived in the place next door. So, I approached our strata/BC, to get individual charging put in.

Each townhouse already had it's own meter, so I'm not sure why this wasn't already in place. Upshot was that each townhouse had to have the old meter replaced, with some new, fandangled one (and a new meter box, which looked exactly the same as the old one, in my opinion) - total cost was around $2K, which was then paid for out of BC fees (at $400 per townhouse, that wasn't too bad). Given that 3 of the 5 townhouses were IPs, the ability to put the water payments back onto the tenants was worth the $400 outlay. And, my water bill became half of what it was!

 

Abide by the conditions and water usage charges can be passed on to the tenants.

Infrastructure costs are paid by the landlord as these charges are levied whether the property is occupied or vacant, and therefore not a result of the tenancy.
Marg

 

If you property is water compliant then you pass the usage charges to the tenant.

If you are not doing this then go get it compliant as it is a small outlay but if you are holding the property for a long time it is well worth it.

Also for people who are part of owners corporation it would likely add value if you changed to separate meters as the property is now more desirable from a investor point of view along with single/dual occupying purchasers. Unless half of the occupants are larger families occupying the property it should be a no brainer to have it approved.

 

Id be interested to know if there are any owners of QLD apartments/units IPs that dont have individual meters who pass on the water costs to the tenant.

I think its not the norm and it would turn potential renters away perhaps?

As for a previous poster stating to get the place compliant. It might be difficult as I outlined why previously (and wylie confirmed) and also the reason scott no mates mentioned.

But i will contact my BCs and lodge the issue with them. Doesnt hurt to find out.

 

Don't blame OOs for this, I have lived in a unit before and did not like paying for others use of water, if I was going to stay, I would have put it on the agenda at meetings, but there are blocks where it would not be worthwhile too. It also averages out when many units and is deductible for LL, so not as bad.

My input however, is mainly for the many stand alone houses, where LL have to be in the middle, and it is wrong IMO, whoever is providing the water is just shifting the admin to owners, there is no good reason for us to be involved.

 

I doubt it.

No meter = you cannot charge for usage.

 

Always bad if you're not getting any identifiable cost recovery

 

It’s actually illegal to charge for water usage in Qld unless you meet ALL the conditions, one of which is individual meters.

If your PM tells you otherwise, get another PM.
Marg

 

That's what I thought. I just wanted to make sure that I was understanding it correctly. And, no, my PM hasn't made any such assertions. My PM is actually fantastic.

I'd also be interested to know if there is anybody on this site that actually has a QLD IP unit/apartment that is individually metered. I was told on the Goldie that they are extremely rare. So if that's the case, then I would imagine renters know this and it would turn them away if they had to pay for water???

 

Just to clarify as there is a bit more to it, the conditions are:

1) individually metered
2) in the lease that tenant is to pay for water
3) the property is water efficient

The first two are non negotiable. The third condition though determines how much water can be charged, not whether it can be charged.

For a water efficient property, 100% of usage charges can passed onto the tenant. However, you can still charge excess water if the third condition is not met. Owner is liable for a "reasonable usage" amount, and the tenant can be charged the excess. It is a good way to protect yourself from any usage bill shock if you decide for whatever reason not to go down the path of efficiency compliance.

I would say it’s the other way around. If my PM simply told me i can't charge any water usage unless ALL conditions are met, but didn't provide the above caveat, then I would change.

 

I have one. Meters are accessible on each floor and read in the same way as my houses.