Aptmts, Body Corporate Fees & Cost of Utilities

I decided to take a look at some of the display suites currently open in Melbourne Docklands for their Off-The-Plan apartment developments. These were Victoria Point, Victoria Harbour, and Conder Tower.

(For anyone else considering looking, beware that you are required to fill out a registration form when you enter the building, and will like get hassled to varying degrees by sales staff).



It occurred to me later than I did not see in the display suite a hot water service anywhere (or a place where it might fit), which in turn led me to wonder whether high-density apartments usually use a central hot water system (eg. boiler) for the entire building etc.

And this got me wondering about certain utilities and whether they are metered individually to each apartment, or to the building as a whole, and part of the body corporate fees cover that cost?

Does anyone have any knowledge in this area?

Thanks

Kevin.
 
A friend of mine lives in a relatively new complex with about 20 units in it...I never saw her hws, so I asked her.

They have 3 enormous gas hws in the basement which have a separate metre, and each time she turns on her hot water the metre starts ticking over, and she'll get charged for her gas and hot water.
 
The hot water is metered to the unit as water by the gas company. This metering is now done electronically. Based on the amount of hot water you used, you get a bill for the proportion of the gas used to heat all the water for the building over the same period.

In general with large buildings it is impractical to have individual water meters as the water board has not as yet started electronic metering. As a result large buildings have a central meter and the body corporate is left to diffy up the water charges based on strata untis rather than use.

This works fine until you get some heavy users/ unattended leaking washer which send the water use for the building through the roof.

In one particular building that I am involved ( only 12 units in the building) the water usage is double what it should be with no external leaks. To try and resolve this expense we will be door knocking to find which unit is simply wasting the water. The excess water is in the facinity of $3000 pa.

Cheers
 
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