Who Pays for Water in Queensland Rental Properties

In this video, Heather explains how water charging works in Queensland tenancies. Click the video below to watch or read the transcript.

Video Transcript

Hi, I’m Heather Jopson from Beyond Property Management and I wanted to talk briefly today about one of our most frequently asked questions from clients and that’s ‘How does water charging work in Queensland tenancies?’ So we’re going to talk briefly about what do tenants pay and what are the criteria them for you to be able to on charge that to your tenant.

This is the RTA water charging fact sheet it’s available online and it’s actually a really good resource to help understand. Other premises individually metered for water some older style blocks of units you’re going to get a no straightaway on this one if it’s a free-standing house absolutely the home meets criteria. One water meter one tenancy. Then your lease needs to state that the tenant must pay for water usage and then the property needs to meet the criteria in order for it to be compliant on charge to your tenants.

So this is where on your lease you find the information this is on page of your lease overarchingly we’ve said yes the tenant must pay for water usage and then a special term is included to state what in what usage is charged and how is that going to work in the tenancy but just remember you can’t contract outside the act if the home doesn’t comply doesn’t matter what you put in your lease.

So what does water efficient mean? What is a water efficient home? This is the world’s three star rating or the world’s rating that was introduced in 2005 and your property needs to meet a world’s three star rating in order for you to be able to on charge all water usage to your tenants. But how do you prove that your property complies with the standard? The most common way is to have a plumber give you a certificate on the property but you can also just keep your warranty information receipts for any fittings that you’ve installed and here is the other taps internal taps any showerhead, dual flush toilet that needs to comply in order for your home to be deemed water efficient but just remember the tenant doesn’t pay the whole water bill and they don’t pay directly to the utility.

You pay the utility and then your property manager or you if you’re managing directly will invoice the tenants for the water usage part of the bill and that tenant must be given 30 days to reimburse you for that cost after the invoice date. So let’s have a look at what your tenant pays this is a Q.U.U invoice urban utilities doesn’t matter who you’re with whether you’re in unity area or Logan there’s going to be a water usage part of the bill this is what the tenant pays not the access charges just the usage and the other really important thing to remember is that the tenant needs to be invoiced regularly they need to be invoiced as you’re invoiced you can’t just store up a whole lot of invoices and send them in once a year and so what most landlords do will find that easiest to do is have the bill sent directly to the property manager, property manager pays the utility invoices the tenant at the same time and you don’t need to do anything and you don’t even need to know how all of this works.

I hope that’s been really useful for you if you have any questions at all whether you’re a current client whether you’re a private landlord I don’t mind I love talking property so give me a call any time if you’ve got any questions.