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  • #40641
    princess.cow
    Flatchatter

      We have a self managed strata for our small group of villas. There have been complaints of splitting water bills as some have 1 tenant as opposed to multi tenants on a different villa.

      They have proposed installation of separate water meter and initially stated that the plumbing works will be spit equally to all home owners.

      Now they’ve retracted that saying that the 1 person tenant (where the original meter is also located hence least plumbing work) has been paying more than their fair share so they shouldn’t be oblige to pay more.

      This doesn’t sound right to me. Please help.

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    • #40660
      Jimmy-T
      Keymaster

        The strata Act is quite clear on this – levies and special levies are to be paid based on unit entitlements, unless you get an order from NCAT to the contrary.

        If there is a majority feeling that the single tenant landlord has been seriously disadvantaged, there is nothing I can think of to stop the owners corp making a one-off pro-rata payment by way of restitution.

        Between that and the reduced bills in the future, the landlord should be happy to pay the legislated share of the levies to have the water meters installed.

        The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
        #41073
        Faraway girl
        Flatchatter

          Oh no, water metering gives me the biggest headache but thankfully our water issue has now been solved. The solution to our problem which was very similar but a bit more complex  was that we went back over the quarterly water invoices for the previous financial year and put that amount into our annual budget and our owners Corporation ( body corporate) paid all water bills. Of course the levies covered the budget and as Jimmie says, the SSMA in NSW is very clear that the costs are allocated by the lot entitlements not by who it is thought used the most or the least water.  The other thing that we then did was obtain lots of water saving posters and fact sheets on saving water and distributed them to all apartments to encourage residents to save water. Good luck with this. Jimmie and others on flat chat were very helpful to us while our water saga was ongoing And I will be forever greatful

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