I.P's Water Bill has QUADRUPLED !!!????

[triv]

Hi Guys,

Long time reader...first time poster.

I have owned my 1 and only IP for about 7yrs in the Moreton Bay council area and up until a few months ago i had only been getting a water bill for about $30-$40... the balance being picked up by my tenant.

It seems that someone in the the local council or possibly the QLD State Government has decided to change the way things are done and has started sending me the bill. The bill is now coming from Unitywater.

I have had the same tenants for about 18 months.

The bill shows the water usage in litres / day as :

Usage this Period = 527 - $337 / Qu

Same period last year = 140 ( Nearly 4 times less )

Local average = 352

The jump in 12 months seems extreme to me... I haven't put in a pool and after questioning PM she assures me the tenants haven't either.

No major leaks above ground either from all reports.

Maybe they are using the place as a boarding house.

Has anyone else experienced a jump like this ?

Can anyone tell me why the rules have changed ?

Should i just add this new / larger charge to my outgoings or pass a little onto my tennants ?

Any advice, thoughts or experience in this matter would be very much appreciated.

Cheers

T

 

[Brett IP]

Absolutely, I received a whopper of a water bill on my last rates notice.

Long story short, found out one of the toilets had a constant leak. This wasnt a dripping leak, it was basically pouring out like a tap was running 24 hours a day, 7days a week.

Had I been advised earlier I could have saved heaps, but didnt notice till an inspection. $120 toilet and all is good.

Has the place been certified by a plumber as water efficient and no leaks? If you have this done then you can charge the tenants for all water usuage

 

[mary&mat]

Hi Triv,

Is the property seperately metered?

Regards,
M&M

 

[Sheryn]

T

Was visiting and talking to my son in QLD last weekend and he was saying water bill has increased to $300 per quarter for 2 people in a new house and he would like a bigger water tank!


I would suggest you get your water bill sent directly to PM - instruct PM to contact water authority ( I wasn't paying 100% attention to what my son said but I believe he said they were doing the bills differently now in QLD).

Hope above helps as son know we pay about $100 a quarter in NSW and his bill was three times as much as ours.


Regards
Sheryn

 

[RumpledElf]

Water hasn't changed here but OMG! The rate rises! They hurt! lol

Our water bills have gone up since we realised that the stuff is incredibly cheap so our water bills keep suggesting ways to reduce our usage. There's 5 people in this house so between showers and washing that usage aint going down. We're investing in a thumping great big water tank in the new house for the shower, that's where all our water goes and its only going to get worse.

 

[triv]

Thanks for your thoughts so far

Brett,

I like the idea of having it certified then pass on the charges to the tenants. I'll definately look into it.

M&M,

Seperately metered ?

It is a 3 bed house on an average block of land... not a unit if that's what you mean.

It's the actual usage that i can't really get my head around going up so much.

I recently had a plumber over there changing a few washers. Hopefully it is only a dodgy toilet.

Cheers

 

[mary&mat]

Oops, sorry, didn't read that bit about it being a house.

Down here in Vic, all our bills are going up. Electricity (some have had smart metres installed, don't know if they do that interstate), has just about trebled. Water is going through the roof, almost triple too. Gas not so bad.

Electricity was normally approx $350; last bill $700 - OMG!!! Our usage hasn't changed, it's just the stoopid metering has.

Friend put a rain tank in at his place & refuses to tell council as he's been told he'll be charged more by his water Co.

 

[jaycee]

Oops, sorry, didn't read that bit about it being a house.

Down here in Vic, all our bills are going up. Electricity (some have had smart metres installed, don't know if they do that interstate), has just about trebled. Water is going through the roof, almost triple too. Gas not so bad.

Electricity was normally approx $350; last bill $700 - OMG!!! Our usage hasn't changed, it's just the stoopid metering has.

Friend put a rain tank in at his place & refuses to tell council as he's been told he'll be charged more by his water Co.[/QUOTE]

What a sensible idea by the council / water corp

 

[imonmyway]

someone told me once about not telling the council about water tanks or applying for the grant as they increase your sewerage cost based on the size of the tank you have or something like that.

 

[tom32]

Usage this Period = 527 - $337 / Qu

Same period last year = 140 ( Nearly 4 times less )

Check for a little asterix next to your meter read on the bill last time and the time before that. It is not uncommon that if your meter is hard to find that it may only get read every few times a bill is sent the remainder are just projections based on the last bill. This can mean over time you have a whopper of a bill storing up. It may not be they are physicaly using 4 times more, more likely they are using say 50% more but it has not been read but only projected for a few bills.

e.g. 2007 Actual meter read = 10kL per qtr in 2007. Actual use = 10kL per qtr

2008 Projected reading based on previous year 10kL per qtr Actual use 15kL.

2009 Projected reading based on 2007 = 10kL per qtr Actual useage 15kL

2010 Actual meter reading catches up the previous 2 years 5kL per qtr shortfall you get smashed for 40kL in the next year.

I have had this happen with power bills as well as water too so I don't think it is uncommon.

 

[NBS]

I've had this out with the BBC (Brisbane City Council) before, as my water rates were ok until for some reason our bills were huge with a huge increase in water usage. I may have felt this was ok if my kids were still at home but it was only my wife and I and we were away for a month of one of the periods and still high usage.

So I turned everthing off before I went to bed did a meter reading and checked again in the morning no change in meter reading (no leaks).

So I read the meter twice a day for the next 3 months (yes it was a pain in $ss) and documented it all including times of reading and when the next bill arrived it had us using just over 500l per day and my documentation had us using just under 120 per day.

So after some heating phone calls and them trying to pass the fault onto me I stated I had full documentation over 3 months and will take this to the ombustman. I was then informed we had had no meter readings and it was based on past usage (past year) with 5 people etc etc cut a long story my meter was read and next bill was adjusted.

You have just reminded me again ours is starting to increase but we have one of the flock nesting back at home but will monitor again.

My IP I have all water efficient taps etc and will have cert from plumber so I can claim usage from tenant.

Brian

 

[mary&mat]

someone told me once about not telling the council about water tanks or applying for the grant as they increase your sewerage cost based on the size of the tank you have or something like that.

Ahhh, that makes sense. I knew the council charged more for some reason, but just wasn't sure why.

It sucks that people doing something to assist in bringing down their water usage from water Co's are then slugged more for essentially doing what the govt wants us to do.

Thanks for explaining imonmyway

 

[Brett IP]

The government wins & gets you in the end, no matter what!

 

[mary&mat]

True Brett IP!

I really admire (& have a bit of a good guffaw) over the homeowners that lock their gates, put chains around their old water meters etc so the govt can't install those new 'smartmeters'.

Good on em...too much govt interference in all the wrong places...over-legislation with everything from playgrounds to smoking.

(Rant over - thanks for listening)

 

[tom32]

True Brett IP!

I really admire (& have a bit of a good guffaw) over the homeowners that lock their gates, put chains around their old water meters etc so the govt can't install those new 'smartmeters'.

Good on em...too much govt interference in all the wrong places...over-legislation with everything from playgrounds to smoking.

(Rant over - thanks for listening)

Though the smart meters save you getting that whopping bill after it being saved up for several where the meters were not read.

I guess in the end it makes no difference in terms of the total spend unless getting the bills in a timely fashion allow you to modify your behavior but it certainly can be a rude shock.

Agree with your general sentiment though about liberal ideals going down the toilet in this country.

 

[Spectre]

Triv

Thanks for reminding me, I have to send the water bill to the property managers

If you google unitywater they didnt even read most of the meters before the bill goes out. Even more annoying is the massive salaries the heads of these GOCs are receiving (http://au.news.yahoo.com/local/qld/a/-/local/8188400/soaring-water-bill-linked-to-ceo-salaries/4/).

I discussed this with my property manager a few months ago - their advice is below:

'We are currently charging the tenant for anything in excess of 25kl used in any 6 month period, what this means that at the current rate of $1.35 for the first 600litres used per day you will be out of pocket $33.75 and the tenant will be responsible for the rest. Our way of charging this is as per the tenants lease, when he moved in the water meter was read and it will be read again at the end of his lease and charged accordingly.

Also please be aware that on you water bill there is also the fixed charges for Sewerage of $275.50 and also the fixed water charge of $112.00, this is all your cost, anything above the $387 is the actual water charges, this means that the amount charged for water on that account would be $88.

If you are wanting to charge tenants for all water charges for future leases there will need to be an audit on the home by a plumber, this will then tell us what water saving devices are installed in the property and what needs to be done in order to make it water efficient, once this is done and anything rectified you can then charge the tenants for all water on any future leases.'

 

[Ozziespur]

Ahhh, that makes sense. I knew the council charged more for some reason, but just wasn't sure why.
It sucks that people doing something to assist in bringing down their water usage from water Co's are then slugged more for essentially doing what the govt wants us to do.

Thanks for explaining imonmyway

It's so they can vote themselves new pay rises and benefits. We are seriously over governed in this country.

Moreton Bay council is the amalgamation of Pine Rivers council & others. It was in the best interest of all ratepayers to streamline the council & lower costs... HA WATOB !!!

 

[liverpoolharryk]

We had the same thing a massive water bill at our Ormiston House. we could not work out why after some investigation found out we had a leake under the slab. Diverted pipe, stopped leak and the very next quarter the bill came down. The redlands shire council even reuimbursed us some of the cost because of the type of leak we had.