water usage to either the house or granny flat

as new tenancy Legislation becoming effective as at 23rd March , we can no longer charge any water usage to either the house or granny flat unless the granny flat has a separate water meter (provided by Sydney Water) located at the front of the property and a separate bill is issued by Sydney Water for each property.

our granny flat has its own sydney water meter but it doesn't have separated bill. Just wonder is it possible to have a separated bill with existing water meter for granny flat? Have anyone experience this issue?

Before that, the agent came to read the water meter of granny flat and adjust the bill accordingly

thanks
regards

 

Just got an email from agent about this. @andy ngo know how much did it cost to have the water separately metered ? We currently have a sub meter between house and granny flat.

 

A "child" meter cant get a seperate bill if its not a official sydney water meter. And for tenancy purposes it must be a Sydney water meter that is either individually billed to the one owner or two bills. Sydney water can co-ordinate that. Seperate bills may mean higher service fee charges. Adding a meter after a lease commences poses a issue since the rental agreed included water and now you want to change this basis.

https://www.sydneywater.com.au/web/...ments/document/zgrf/mdq3/~edisp/dd_047502.pdf

 

the agent said it is roughly $2000 . I ended up increase the rent to cover the water bill. thinking it is better solution for now

 

Thanks Andy. $2000 sounds a bit much. Might have to look into your solution.

 

Go to reece and ask for a "Meter Fit Application"
Its like $50 to get it done.
Thing is you will need the plumber to set everything up first, then Sydney Water comes in and installs the new meter.

Unsure of what a plumber will charge.
You also need to see where the granny flat water joins from. Most builders do it at the rear yard of the house. This makes it painful as you would need to run an entire water line from the granny flat straight to the original meter.

 

Thanks Nek. Yeah they make it easy for everyone except the landlord

 

I've actually just completed this.

Two parts to it as mentioned above:

1. Sydney Water; once all the plumbing is installed, you apply with Sydney Water to get the meter installed. This is free of charge. Also, for a granny flats, they will do a 20mm meter which has no ongoing service fee. The larger meters will incur an ongoing service fee. You will receive the normal Sydney Water bills, however on it you will have the additional meter listed with it's usage.

2. Plumbing; the costs will vary depending on a few factors. But the overall works starting from the water mains to the granny: turn off the water mains between your main valve and the street supply (numerous ways to do this - pipe freeze, main valve at street pipe etc), put in a junction before your valve at your existing meter, run a new line off that junction for the new meter, put in a bridge piece, run the other side to where your granny flat feed comes from. I would say at a minimum $2,000 however would not be surprised for it to be a lot over either - there's quite a bit of manual work involved (lots of digging). The copper pipes and fittings alone could come in around 500-1,000 itself.

If you are living in the main house, then it is only the granny flat usage that is of concern - usually not that high and like you have done adding a bit more to the rent is easier. If you are renting the main house and the granny flat, then this would be a decent amount and usually be difficult to just add water on top to the front house rental - not sure this is legal either (obviously can do it without labelling it water - same applies to granny flat but due to the nature of it, usually it's generally accepted by people).