Who Owns the Rainwater on Your Roof?

[Olly]

(From another forum I belong to. I thought because it was property related others may find this interesting.)

Who Owns the Rainwater on Your Roof?
You may think you do, but according to Greg Cameron of Urban Rainwater Systems Pty Ltd, writing in the online newsletter Crikey:

"If you are one of the 58% of Australians who live in NSW or Victoria, the water that falls on your roof is your property. Your ownership of rainwater gives you the right to use it any way you please. Your state government has no authority to regulate, require you to use, or tax, your use of the water that falls on your roof. You have the legal right to install a rainwater tank and to plumb it into your household plumbing provided you comply with building, town planning and plumbing regulations. To encourage you, your government gives you the right to install rainwater tanks up to 10,000 litres in NSW and up to 4,500 litres in Victoria, without planning approval... But if you are a resident of South Australia, Western Australia or Tasmania, you do not own the water that falls on your roof. Your state government can regulate, require you to use, or tax, your use of the water any time it likes. If you are a resident of Queensland, your government does not know who owns the water that falls on your roof. However, this does not seem to matter too much, because your government regulates your use of rainwater all the same."

He writes more here - http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=4175

The whole thing is quite bizarre. I can see water storage & usage becoming a real hot potato - it already is to some degree, but I think it's going to get worse. It wasn't that many years ago that councils banned people from having water tanks - what a turn around. Now they're a must in new developments, standards in what size tanks to install already decided, governments giving (miserly) rebates and so it goes on.

Olly

 

[mja]

An interesting read...thanks for the link!

-- MJ.

 

[Xenia]

How can anyone tax you for water that falls on your roof, what a ridicilous proposition

What about water that falls directly in your garden? What about if you dont have a rain water tank, is it still taxed just for falling on the roof?

The only way this can be regulated is to introduce a "rainfall tax" measure the surface area of everyones roof and calculate during a rainfall in a certain period, how much water would have fallen on that particular roof. That means that rainfall in all areas would need to be monitored precicely so that the correct tax could be applied.

Would gabled roofs then be taxed at a higher rate than flat roofs (the surface area would be higher). What happens in multi-dwellings? Would there be a strata or community title tax applied for rainwater falling?

That's the most stupid thing I've heared all day and trust the SA state government to come up with even thinking of taxing rain water!

 

[topcropper]

How can anyone tax you for water that falls on your roof, what a ridicilous proposition
!

Yep. It is stupid, and it would cause a riot if it ever happened, so I can't see it. The instalation of rainwater tanks everywhere will be the simplest way for the cities to help their water crisis, so a tax like this would kill it off straight away, leaving the alternative, stupid energy burning desalinisation.

If they taxed the rain that fell on your land, I'd be up for 1000 hectares times .67 metres, would be over 6 million tonnes of water or 6 billion litres. Ouch!

See ya's.

 

[Brenda Irwin]

The Australian Constitution
100. Nor abridge the right to use water
The Commonwealth shall not, by any law or regulation of trade or commerce, abridge the right of a State or of the residents therein to the reasonable use of the waters of rivers for conservation or irrigation.

 

[wylie]

I think it was somewhere on SS that I read someone's thoughts that with the council and state government giving out rebates, they also have the details of who has tanks, and who knows what sort of water "tax" they may introduce down the track to recoup all the rebates they have given ($41M quoted in the paper recently from memory - seems a lot so not sure if this figure is correct).

Of course, that would be stupid, because then people will disconnect the tank and get rid of it, which would also be stupid. But do councils and governments and people do stupid things ...... ?????

But think of it, whether you put a garbage bin out to be collected or not, the council takes your rates for garbage collection. So maybe it is not such a far fetched thing.

Also, we probably thought the government taking a land tax was a stupid idea years ago..... but we all pay it now once we go over the threshold.

GST was supposed to mean other taxes being removed but many are still there.

Anything is possible.


Wylie

 

[Sim]

I do find the whole rainwater tank thing happening in NSW now to be a bit amusing.

Having grown up in South Australia (both regional and city), I grew up with rainwater tanks - it was pretty much a given. Not these little ones either - they were typically 3-4 metres high and similar in diameter (at least in older homes with larger blocks).

I was surprised when I moved to Sydney and found that not only did the majority of houses not have rainwater tanks - indeed they were actively discouraged from installing them !!!

 

[topcropper]

I do find the whole rainwater tank thing happening in NSW now to be a bit amusing.
!!!

Yeah, same here. I thought everyone had rainwater tanks since 100 years ago. Funny thing though, when someone from the bush moves to the city, they never put em in! It's like you have a god given right to be supplied water when in the city. So I visit ex bushies in the city and here they are on water restrictions, carrying buckets around?

See ya's.