A question about water

[alplant]

I am curious if any of you have had experience with having to charge your tenants for excess water. The way we pay for water here is a basic charge of 'xx' amount of dollars just for having the water and then $1.53 per kl for the first 80kl, $1.89 for the next 40kl, and then $2.14 for everything above that. We pay for every drop, don't get any free.

The tenants get 'a reasonable amount' free. It's factored into the rent obviously, but they don't pay per kl. We are allowed to charge them for anything over that 'reasonable amount', whatever the hell that is. Most PM's recommend about 100kl. We never have, even though at one time we had tenants who went over a couple of times. The PM just told them about it and suggested they cut back a bit if they didn't want to end up paying.

Now this is where it gets a bit sticky. The readings are so far out of date I wonder just how far we would actually get with this. For instance the rate notices have just arrived and the last reading was back in June. Tenants could be long gone by the time you find out they even used excess water. We have never asked for the meter to be read at the end of any tenancy before but I am wondering if that might not be a good idea in future. I don't even know if that is possible. It probably would be, for a charge, naturally.

Also I was wondering how it works if we decided to sell. I'm sure the new owners wouldn't be too thrilled about getting rate notices with excess water for nearly five months ago. I know before water got tight when you sold you just divied up the rates (or your solicitor did) and the purchase price was adjusted accordingly but this opens up a whole new can of worms because water is starting to get expensive, especially if people are heavy users.

Sorry for the long post, but it is pretty convoluted question, when you think about it. The prices are rising pretty much with every rate notice and when the readings are this far behind .. well it just bothers me.

 

[Raddles]

HI there
just in relation to your general query about a purchase - it is usual to do a water meter reading so a proper adjustment for water is done.
As for excess water, increasingly accounts are starting to show the service charges for water and sewerage and the other proportion which is consumption. You obviously have to have a separate water meter to be able to pass the consumption costs onto the tenant.
Interesting that you raise the issue of water. For the first time we have started to charge one of our tenants for consumption of water and there was a real song and dance - we were basically threatened that they wouldn't be able to look after the gardens properly if they had to pay for water. Our response was they were fortunate to be able to use water on the gardens - we haven't been able to for years. They backed down after that comment.
thanks

 

[wylie]

For the first time since the water usage for tenants law changed on 1 April 2008 we have put in tenants and in the new lease (on the Entry Condition Report) there is provision to charge tenants their water usage. To be able to charge them, you have to have passed certain benchmarks regarding dual flush toilets and water saving shower heads and sign off that these meet the required standards.

When they moved in, we read the meter and when we get the rates notice, we will work out what the charge is and bill them. We are just getting rates notices this week, so not sure how it will go yet. These tenants have their own rental properties elsewhere, and are quite au fait with this system as their own tenants pay for water, so I am not expecting any problems.

As you say, the issue is that the rates notice meter reading is out of date, so you need to read the meter. This is easy for us because we live nearby and self manage. Not sure what agents are doing.

Would love to hear from one of the rental agents on the forum.

 

[alplant]

Thanks for the replies. It's interesting to see that other council's are behind in the readings too. I knew Brisbane was (used to live there) but couldn't remember how far. As a matter of interest Raddles is Toowoomba out of date too.

As for reading the meter ourselves, yeah we could do that, we live nearby, but we don't self manage.

Like you Wylie, I will be interested in replies from agents on the forum. But you can be sure if they have to do that as well, it will all add to our costs, and rightly so too, can't expect them to do it for nothing. There goes a bit more of the interest rate decrease savings.

 

[Raddles]

Hi there
as our Council has almalgamated - not quite sure how it all will go - our last water bill was in 2007 - but I know when doing conveyancing when you don't have an exact water meter reading - you do actually calculate the daily rate based upon past usage. You would then apportion it for the particular tenant. I'd imagine if they wanted to dispute it with the tribunal they would have to have some sort of evidence to dispute the pro rated calculation
thanks

 

[Jason Rose]

We are very unfortunate here in Brisbane that water is charged to the owner first on their rates notice and then the tenant has to be invoice for the amount, whether it is the full amount(like wylie said above) or the excess amount that has been stipulated in the lease.

It is so much easier in some other councils(in Sydney & Melbourne that I know of) the water is a service just like electricity, gas etc and the tenant has to organise and pay.

We as a company have over 2000 residential properties under management, so if you are confused with 1 or 2 properties how do you think it is for us.

I think it is great that legislation has been passed to pass water cost onto tenants, but I don't think the logistics have been thought about before hand.

Water cost can only be charged to the tenant if the property is individually metered(and it has to be the council meter you can not install your own meter) so a majority of unit blocks have single meters for the complex so water charges can not be passed on. The appropriate clauses have to be in the lease, so if the lease was drawn up prior to 1st April 2008, then you will have to wait until the lease renews.

We are still trying to get our head around what we do when a tenant vacates prior to a rates notice being issued, waiting for the owner to send us a copy of the rates notice if we do not pay the rates on their behalf. We have to hold an amount out of bond to cover the water costs.

With the water restrictions here in Brisbane we still can not use domestic water to water the gardens, so to maintain some extensive gardens we have had to organise water tanks to be installed.

Unfortunately is it just another hurdle that the government has put in place that we have to deal with just like the requirements on owner and tenants with smoke detectors.

 

[alplant]

Thank you Jason. What a nightmare it all sounds for you.

I think from our point of view, just taking our own properties into account, it's not worth the hassle of trying to charge for water. We keep an eye on the usage and if it gets a bit over the top we give a copy to the PM and she gives it to the tenants. Usually that is all that is needed to get them to cut back a bit. The tenants I mentioned that were going over are good now. The fact that they got a letter from the Water Commission as well, didn't hurt.

Obviously the only sensible way to go would be for the Councils to start charging the user directly like Sydney and Melbourne, but with the readings being so far out of date, that's probably not possible. It always gets back to that doesn't it, the fact that the readings are so far out of date. Maybe we need to lean on our Councils to get them up to date but that would mean us paying two quarters at once here, and maybe people would balk at that. Pollies don't like it when people balk, might not vote for 'em next time.