Process for seperating water and electicity meters?

[LPP]

Hi Everyone,

Does anyone know who to go to and what the process and estimated costs in separating the water, electricity and gas?

Have an unusual property. It is long and thin, with 2 street frontages. The house is currently configured into a 1 bedroom house at one end and a 2 bedroom house at the other. All currently connected to the one meter for each of the services.

Council may not be favorable to subdividing due to no backyard space for either property (does not meet rescode requirements) - all land is at the front of each (something they do not support). We will try to subdivide, but it is not 100% likley at this point in time.

Rental is excellent if we retain the current structure of the 1 bed and the 2 bed house being leased separately, just the electricity, gas and water is an issue.

I realise we can fund this expense and charge more for rent as a worse case.



Thanks in advance for your help

 

[devo76]

Hi Everyone,

Does anyone know who to go to and what the process and estimated costs in separating the water, electricity and gas?

Have an unusual property. It is long and thin, with 2 street frontages. The house is currently configured into a 1 bedroom house at one end and a 2 bedroom house at the other. All currently connected to the one meter for each of the services.

Council may not be favorable to subdividing due to no backyard space for either property (does not meet rescode requirements) - all land is at the front of each (something they do not support). We will try to subdivide, but it is not 100% likley at this point in time.

Rental is excellent if we retain the current structure of the 1 bed and the 2 bed house being leased separately, just the electricity, gas and water is an issue.

I realise we can fund this expense and charge more for rent as a worse case.



Thanks in advance for your help

Had a seperate water meter fitted today by a local plumber.
$450 fitted.
Cant comment on the other items.
Cheers

 

[quoll]

Most of the fee's you should find on the website of the relevant utility company. A surveyor will be able to tell you if you have a chance with council, just get one to come out and have a chat, like most professionals first consult should be free.

Your main cost will be sewer if they need to run it down the other street, $1000/m, on the bright side you can probably get away without the sewer being split.

Water meter, depends on the size of the pipe but budget $3000-$4000, but again, you might not need to separate the water.

Electricity, not sure, haven't had to put in a new board or split, all of mine have been separate at the start.

We had a similar corner block, 3bed and 2bed, cost about $20k to subdivide.

 

[quoll]

Does anyone know who to go to and what the process and estimated costs in separating the water, electricity and gas?

Surveyor for process, utility company for paperwork and work, paperwork bit will cost more than the doing bit of the work.

Council may not be favorable to subdividing due to no backyard space for either property (does not meet rescode requirements) - all land is at the front of each (something they do not support). We will try to subdivide, but it is not 100% likley at this point in time.

Surveyor, get a local guy, they will know what the council will and won't do, or have done vs rejected in the past. Prior usage is a clause that comes to mind. If this has been setup with the 2 units for a long time then that is taken into account in the process.

Rental is excellent if we retain the current structure of the 1 bed and the 2 bed house being leased separately, just the electricity, gas and water is an issue.

Just charge rent that includes gas/water/elect and you get those bills tenants just pay a few buck more each week in rent. It's not an issue. Unless you want to sell or revalue subdividing is a bit expense.

I realise we can fund this expense and charge more for rent as a worse case.

Probably won't be able to charge more rent, market doesn't care about paperwork, they just look at 1bed unit / 2bed unit.

 

[evand]

An electrician can separate your meters. Its called "separation of supply" in NSW. Get a couple of quotes.

 

[Purple Patch]

You may be required to have a fireproof wall between the two dwellings. This can be a major cost and a lot of work.
Good luck
PP

 

[LPP]

Thank you everyone for your responses. I was able to get to the bottom of most of it yesterday and think we have sorted suitable solutions.

 

[brendio]

Care to share your solution for the benefit of other readers?

 

[LPP]

No Worries Brendio

The water company is happy to set up a second meter but the property manager will have to check it because they will not issue 2 sep bills UNLESS the council will recognise the dwelling as 2 seperate houses.

My discussions with council at this stage is not promising in regards to them acknowledging 2 sep homes.

At this stage we are supplying an electric oven and stove top to the 1 bedroom home so we dont have to chage the gas connections to supply to this property.

Insurance and firewall: still looking into this part, as mentioned firewalls exp - not sure if required if not subdividing??? Anyone know?

Electricity much the same as water, getting electician out to add another meter.

I will post back once we have finalised everything and completed so I can provide more accurate account of how we did things. All of the above was based purely upon phone conversations with the relevant suppliers after receiving advice from our friendly and helpful SS'ers (thankyou).

One thing to note though - the answers and guidance does change depending on whom you speak with, it pays to call back and try for someone a little more willing to help and offer solutions.

First lady I spoke with said it couldnt be done re water but then checked with her supervisor when I asked how it was handled in a home where we shared the same roof with next door but had our own title. They initially told me that if it was under one roof they couldnt do anything.....that didnt seem right, thinking about duplex homes etc. Turns out the supervisor the first time round was just not willing to help until I pushed it a little.