This message is to let you know about a recent District Court decision which affects the tenancy advice the Ministry of Housing will be giving about who is responsible for waste water charges to rented residential properties.
On 23 September the Auckland District Court ruled that tenants can be liable to pay all water charges.
This includes charges for water supplied to the property, and for wastewater removed from it, as long as three conditions are met:
- The premises have a separate water meter; AND
- The tenancy agreement states, that at the commencement of the tenancy the tenant shall pay for any metered water provided to the premises; AND
- The water supplier charges for water provided to the premises on the basis of metered usage. (This may be an actual metered waste water charge or a percentage of a metered use of water (for example Metrowater currently charges for waste water at the rate of 75% of the metered water provided to the property).
Tenants will not be responsible for water charges if the tenant and landlord have agreed in writing that the charges are to be paid by the landlord, or if there is no reference to payment of water charges on the tenancy agreement. The Court’s decision differs from the advice the Ministry’s Tenancy Services division has previously given on this issue. From now on that advice will be in line with the District Court’s judgement.
In terms of how this affects the rulings of the Tenancy Tribunal, the Tribunal is currently considering how it will handle any requests for rehearings or applications for charges already paid. We will be able to provide you with further information when we have an indication of how the Tribunal is likely to respond to such requests and applications.
Please continue to contact our 0800 TENANCY (0800 83 62 62) advice line if you have any further questions about water charges.
Nigel Bickle National Manager, Tenancy Services
Lee Chisholm Northern Region Manager, Tenancy Services
Keith McDonald Central-Southern Region Manager, Tenancy Services
February 23rd, 2007 - 6:02 am
HI Andrew,
The ruling that was made in September 2003 concerning water and wastewater charges deals with Metro water. In July 2006, Manukau Water was formed. They charge water by meterage but wastewater is not a percentage of the water usage. It is charged at a fixed rate per property and billed quarterly ( on same water bill). That’s $79.99 per bill plus water usage .($320 p.a per residential property).
Would you say the wastewate charge is payable by tenants as well?
Would appreciate your views on this?
Thanks
Josephine