Hi all, As most QLD investors are probably already aware, a tenant for a property in QLD is only required to pay water usage if the water services on the property are compliant with water efficiency requirements. To date my tenants have been paying their water usage. However a few months back, the hot water service had a major issue, and was replaced first thing in the morning. Now the water bill has arrived, they don't believe they have to pay usage for the period. This is a 3 month billing period. Is this the case? At most I would have thought there would be some minor apportioning to account for this. The water usage itself is more or less what it has been previous billing cycles... Frosty
I had a similar issue. Water went from like $400 to like $1500 because of a leak. We were able to get the tenant to pay for it because they didn't report the water leak until well after. So it's a matter of whether you knew about it or not.
I didn't have prior knowledge, and arranged repairs on the day it was made aware to me. Surprised you were able to get them to pay effectively $1,100 for something that wasn't their fault...
Yeah but it was highly visible leaking and they just sat on it without informing my agent for months.
Get them to pay same as last bill or one prior, or an average or the lowest amount, or an agreed amount, they cannot say they did not use any water.
If the hot water system was replaced the next day after the maintenance request was issued, then what is the matter? They've had HW all this time. Plus they 've had cold water too. I suspect they are trying you on.
If it is genuinely higher than past water bills as above I would work out an average of what they have been using and charge them accordingly and absorb the difference as you acted on the maintenance as soon as you were notified
Accepted best practice is to have the plumber report on the estimated water loss from the leak (flow per minute multiplied by time leaking generally works best) and subtract that from the quarterly water invoice, cross checked with the tenants history of water consumption.