Tenant not paying water bills

Send them a breach notice
This!

Get the water bill sent to the real estate rather than you so they take care of it.
And This!

Spot on, if it's all agreed in the contract then you follow the same process as if the contract was breached, as if they were not paying rent or having arrears.
Exactly!

Divide the outstanding by 12 weeks and suggest they pay this amount in addition to their rent to cover water usage and continue with this set up for each bill of water usage, if suitable and accepted by parties involved.

If you allow the water bills to build up and deduct from bond there is nothing left to have as security in the event you need to claim from the bond.
We've done this at times with tenants that have difficulty paying.

They sound like excellent tenants so personally I would tread with caution.
NO! They are not excellent tenants.

If you want to grow a portfolio of properties, you need to treat it as a Business. Letting tenants out of their obligations for whatever reason is not the way that a Business would proceed. You are NOT a charity! Don't act like one!

A tenant will not up & leave a property because they have been asked to pay their $130 water bill. That just does not make sense. Everywhere they go, they will use water, so they just need educating that this their responsibility and not yours.

Sending them a breach is just like you receiving a reminder notice of a bill that's been left a little late. If you were with Optus & got a reminder notice, would you take your bat & ball & go switch to Telstra? No! You'd just pay your bill. This is exactly the same!
 
Don't stress over $100. Not worth it mate.

Maybe they came from a place that doesn't have water bills like Gold Coast. (free water). They are just not use to it.
 
Don't stress over $100. Not worth it mate.

Maybe they came from a place that doesn't have water bills like Gold Coast. (free water). They are just not use to it.

But what happens if they abuse this right to now free water? Then you will have to supply bath mats which you will have to amend your depreciation schedule spreadsheet.

pinkboy
 
i didn't say just let them not pay all i'm saying is if they grow up in a place where you didn't have to pay for water, and everyone they have spoken to said nah mate water's free then they will think water is free. (in gold coast it's free but if you go over a threshold then you have to pay.)

just saying you need to show them and explain it that's all. so they believe you. try to put yourself in their position. you'd probably think this agent is trying to scam money out of me. water is obviously free.
 
Xenia is on the money. Start paying it yourself and you might as well start paying the rent for them as well. Also you may compromise your lease.
It's a breach and should be handled as such and done correctly and quickly and decisively by the PM. The amount is irrelevant. Tell the PM to get on with it. Weak PMs mean arrears and problems.
Cheers
crest133
 
If it's in Queensland , they do have to pay

Talked to a pm about this yesterday ..

You need to pay it initially , then agents claims it off them .

Do sweat it as if they get away with this , they will think you're a push over and will see what else they can get away with . First no pay water , then late with rent ...

If they don't pay it , they will not worry about their consumption and it will go up then you'll be trying to claim back an increasing amount which just makes it harder on you and the tenant .

I was told most tenants are bad with paying it , but eventually do .

If they get a breech notice and are evicted , it's hard for them to get another place to rent , so there is pressure on them .

Cliff
 
The primary liability is the landowner. You must pay it and then they incur the consumption element. When handled by agent there is no issue. You cant find a tenant in breach of your water bill.

All newb landlords encounter this and its easily fixed. I'm surprised PM hasn't stressed that. You cant ask tenant to pay your council rates and then you reimburse them so why should you expect them to part pay your water ? Its akin to expecting them to pay your repairs too. Yes you will out a few hundred in cashflow but its just a month or two for timing. Your lease should refer to tenant reimbursing for consumption charge for separately metered water use. Its doesn't say they have to pay your bill.

If they don't pay when agent charges it then its a breach.
 
Make sure the PM has actually passed on the water charges. A number of years ago when I moved to a new state, I rented for 12 months.

Being pedantic with all things financial, I contacted the RE on a number of occasions to ask if they had received the water usage charges as I had not received anything. They kept telling me they didn't have any but would forward them when they received them.

When I was ready to leave the property I received a very irate phone call from the property owner about the outstanding water charges. I forwarded him the emails from the RE to say they had no charges to forward to me! Turned out the RE put the invoices in my file in their office and did nothing else with them.
 
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