How do you pay your water bills

[BLTN]

Hi all,

Small question, but I find this quite annoying. How do you get the tenant to pay the water usage charges?

With Watercorp, you can split out the bill so that the tenant gets the usage charge directly. But if you do this, you cannot pay by direct debit. Not only is this inconvenient (as you need to manually make the payments), but it also incurs a 0.55% surcharge for paying by credit card (this surcharge is waived if you pay by direct debit, which you cannot do if you split the bill).

In addition, you are still liable for the usage charges in the event that the tenant does not pay:

Please be aware that we hold the owner of a property liable for all service charges and water use charges. While the account can be sent to your tenant, if it is not paid by the due date we will request payment from you as the owner.

So you could be up for debit interest as well if you choose this option and the tenant does not pay on time.

The other option is to just pay the bill yourself and chase up the tenant for the water usage charges, but this is a pain as well. It seems to me that tenants don't view the water usage charge as an 'urgent' payment (i.e. if they are late on their rent, this will be recorded on their rental history, but is anyone going to care if they are late on paying their water usage charge?). Would also be annoying if you have multiple tenants and are chasing them all up for water usage..

Just wondering what other people do?

 

[neK]

My PM takes care of for me.

He pays the total water out of the rent, then chases the tenant up for the usage portion.

 

[The Fence]

My PM takes care of for me.

He pays the total water out of the rent, then chases the tenant up for the usage portion.

We take care of it for us.

We pay the total bill and chase the tenant up for usage portion.

Simple and no PM fees on top.

 

[Scott No Mates]

In NSW we cannot split the bill, so as per the above, pay it, get the pm to charge the tenants the usage and get over it.

 

[VaSSagO]

Definitely agree it is a pain!

Pay it myself and chase up the tenant for the usage

Got burnt twice with tenants not paying for usage after they said they had, not a large amount of $$ but still a pain.

 

[DaveM]

Sydney props - water rates + usage to agent, PM pays and on bills usage

NSW regional - water rates to me, usage to PM

VIC - water rates to me, usage to PM

SA - Time will tell as bills come in from purchases, wonder if tenants can centrepay water?

 

[chrispy]

In Vic the water usage is in tenant's name and bill goes directly to them

When Tenant moves out I phone water company and have it put in my name until new tenant moves in.

Then phone and tell them tenant moved in and date and the water bill is sent to them.

Just not a drama in Vic.

Chris

 

[SeafordSunshine]

Sydney Water GRRRRRRRRRR!

I have been trying to change my info on their website and it doesn't work.


a drama with Sydney Water....

 

[HD_ACE]

Pay the total amount as you normally would. Then direct debit the usage from the tenants account as you do the rent.

 

[Doovalacky]

Watercorp

Usage goes to Agent.

I get email for service charges, and Bpay it once a year. Pissed me off for the short period it was only possible to get 2 monthly.

Note: I was in Mywater just last night and I saw nothing that prevented setting up a direct deposit just for service charges but I did not go through entire process.

 

[ozk]

How do you get invoiced for it yearly? I was told it is not possible.

I get email for service charges, and Bpay it once a year. Pissed me off for the short period it was only possible to get 2 monthly.

 

[thatbum]

How do you get invoiced for it yearly? I was told it is not possible.

I think this was a recent change after a whole bunch of upset people gave feedback.

I've set it up annually now too.

 

[BLTN]

Good to see I'm not the only one who finds this a pain!

Usage goes to Agent.

I get email for service charges, and Bpay it once a year. Pissed me off for the short period it was only possible to get 2 monthly.

Note: I was in Mywater just last night and I saw nothing that prevented setting up a direct deposit just for service charges but I did not go through entire process.

That's good to know you can pay annually - is it payable in advance or retrospective though?

And do you still need to chase up the usage charges every 2 months from the tenant?

Re the direct debit, I was advised I cannot do this and split the usage charges at the same time. And I was also advised that there is no point splitting the usage charges as I'd need to chase up the tenant for it anyway (as I am still liable).

I might need to get in touch with WaterCorp again as it seems like they may have fixed some of these annoying issues.

EDIT: I've just found these changes on the website. You have to prepay the service charge (so IMO, it's better to just keep paying 2 monthly) and the usage charges continue to be billed every 2 months (not surprisingly).

 

[BLTN]

I've also just noticed this on the website:

Direct debit service charges and water use charges separately from 1 July 2014

So maybe they have changed it now...

 

[Mr. Fabulous]

I use currency, exclusively denominated in Australian dollars.

 

[sammmeee]

Water crop sends them a bill direct. I pay the water rates via bpay.
If the tenant doesn't pay after 2 reminders from the water corp they then send the bill to us. If they don't pay it's a notice off the top of my head can't remember what this specific notice is called.. Then it all goes from there... Ultimately non payment of water usage= bye bye tenant