QLD Toowoomba Strata title, with one water meter

Hi, I have a duplex complex (own both units) in Toowoomba QLD.

The water meter is a single pipe, single meter. The complex is strata titled.

At this stage I get charged 2 x water access fees per 1/2 year - totalling over $700 per 1/2. The water fees are crippling.

My Questions:

1. Is there any way to avoid this? Have I got a case to request one access charge for one supply pipe?

2. Is there any case for the council to install a second meter, so I can bill water to the tenants?

TIA - regards.

 

If you can determine that the services are separate, you should be able to get a second supply from the street.

How can the authority charge currently for 2 services if there's only a single meter? Or have you misplaced the meter?

 

The council ruling is that the strata titling is reason for 2 access charges.

Incidentally, I have another duplex complex, same town, same situation except not strata titled. Only one access charge for the one supply pipe and meter.

 

No, each Lot would pay. If it was a block of flats for example and not strata titled, a block of flats is only one lot, so only one access charge.

Yes, each lot should have it's own meter. It's not like this is a case where there is a head meter for the scheme land and then subsidiary meters for individual lots and body corporate billing methodology is invoked, so it would be reasonable to request council install a separate meter for the other lot. If they say no, pose the question to them if the lots were owner by non-related entities how would billing be handled then etc.

 

We own a block of 4 x strata-titled units in Brisbane. The property only has one water meter. Every Quarter, we are sent 4 x water and sewerage invoices from Urban Utilities.

Each invoice has a water service charge ($56-13) and a sewerage service charge ($136-95). So, whether we had one meter or 4 x meters, as landlords, we would be paying these charges, namely $3,089-28 per annum in total.

Each invoice has the same water usage charges. They are divided by 4 as there is only one meter. We pay this amount as we can't ascertain how much water each tenant consumed. This is typically around $60 to $65 per unit per Quarter. Say, $1,000-00 per annum in total.

If we had 4 x meters (and the units were all water compliant), we could pass these $1,000 usage charges onto our tenants.

Averaged across the 4 x units, this works out to less than $5 per week. Instead of us incurring all the capital costs of making the units water compliant, getting the 3 x water meters installed and installing all the extra pipework so each units had separate piping. we add $5 per week to each unit's rent.

Just to assist tenants (current and prospective), we regularly remind the Property Manager that we are wearing the full water and sewerage cost for each unit/tenant.