Will we ever get direct water use billing for tenants?
- Thread starter poppy
- Start date
You mean we can ask SA water to bill the tenant direct for their water use and if the tenant doesn't pay, landlord is not responsible?
All my leases have the tenant supposedly responsible for all water use, but apart from the VIC property where I never have to see the bill, it's a real pain trying to extract the money.
Ok no, you're doing the same as us - you can't get SA Water to bill the tenant, still has to be in your name. But you can charge them for all water usage, or give them an allowance, or whatever you decide on.
As far as getting them to pay, yes it can be annoying. They do have to pay it otherwise you can take them to RTA and get a payment order etc. Last time we had a tenant leave with water owing, I believe we took it out of their bond before the insurance co. got it for the rest of the expenses. Apparently we had to argue with the insurance co. a bit to get the water from the bond before they did their calcs. but we did get it.
Steve, do you mean that we can bill tenants for water usuage and supply charges in SA? Yes we can if it is written in the lease!
Water usuage and supply charges are a consumable item that need to always be passed to the tenant. The trouble is that the bill still comes in the landlords name and although you can get reimbursed by the tenant, you still need to invoice them and chase the invoices. It they do not pay it is a default landlord charge.
What Poppy is stating (I think) is SA water billing tenants directly like gas and electricity companies do. This has not happened yet in SA. I am on the REISA property management comittee and this is one of the many issues we have been lobbying for in SA for years. SA water is no closer to making a change as far as I know!
Thank you Xenia that is what I am saying. Tenants should be directly billed for (at a minimum) the water use charges and preferably the supply charge too. It should not be a landlords concern to chase the tenant for the bill.
Xenia, do you know of anywhere landlords could email/write etc in order to assist with your campaign for direct water billing to tenants?
It is good to hear that you are charging tenants for supply charges too. As far as I know SA is one of the few states that allow this yet I believe many PMs (my own included), do not allow their landlords this option.
Xenia, do you know of anywhere landlords could email/write etc in order to assist with your campaign for direct water billing to tenants?
It is good to hear that you are charging tenants for supply charges too. As far as I know SA is one of the few states that allow this yet I believe many PMs (my own included), do not allow their landlords this option.
yeah i wish you could get the water providers to bill the tennats for useage directly....
i just got my latest water bill, and its $340 for one quarter!!!!
The tennat has used a huge $190 worth of useage.
Where i live, and even when there was 2 other people living with us, our water useage NEVER exceeded $65 for a whole quarter.
Now I have to pull that money out of my pocket until the tennant pays up. It shouldnt have to be like that...
i just got my latest water bill, and its $340 for one quarter!!!!
The tennat has used a huge $190 worth of useage.
Where i live, and even when there was 2 other people living with us, our water useage NEVER exceeded $65 for a whole quarter.
Now I have to pull that money out of my pocket until the tennant pays up. It shouldnt have to be like that...
I'm expecting a similar bill for one of my IPs soon
Problem is not just collecting the money, but because the landlord is the one with the bill the tenant feels the onus is on the landlord to "prove" there is not a leak etc when there is a high use bill. Tenants often also make up excuses such as "oh, but I'm watering the garden", to try and get out of paying the bill. They will also try to challenge the calculations and so on. If the bill was in the hands of the tenant, the onus would be on the tenants to show there was a problem before the landlord would reimburse them any money. PMs (understandably) don't want to waste their time fighting over water bills that are sometimes not very much money anyway so will often suggest the landlord "compromise".
I have heard there can also be problems where water is charged on a sliding scale throughout the year (I haven't personally experienced this YET). For example, where the water company charges $1 per kl for the first 100kl and then $2 per kilolitre for the next 100kl. Tenant 1 lives at the property for 6 months and uses 100kl. Tenant 1 moves out and pays landlord for 100kl at $1. As landlord cannot mark up the water, tenant can insist on paying only $1. Tenant 2 then moves in for 6 months and demands their "share" (50kl) at the cheap rate. Landlord must give tenant 2 the cheaper rate whilst having no right to recover the money from Tenant 1.
