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One of the careless consequences of apartment developers’ cost-savings, especially in many older blocks, has been the single communal water meter that sees your water bills shared on the basis of your unit entitlements, rather than actual usage. That means a single pensioner living in a three-bedroom apartment could be paying more for their water bills …
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The whirring sound of an instant hot water system is a bit of a giveaway, which makes it obvious that some people in a single water meter strata building thoroughly enjoy their half-hour showers. Those owners are only paying a small part of the water usage charges — the rest of the owners get to subsidise the psychological needs of the cleaner-than-clean owners. The prospect of separate water metering sounds like a great concept to me, as long as it is legally binding.
regarding the separate water meters.
a friend was in this situation and was paying for water she never used.
another resident washed his truck everyday and got free water.
my friend arranged for a plumber to install individual meters and was lucky to be able to do it.
her water bill went to nothing and the truck owners went through the roof.
so it pays to check to see if this an be done.
I lived alone in a block of 12 with high entitlement and paid for water I did not use.
a couple had babies so I was subsidizing them.
now in a townhouse with separate meters.We have individual water meters installed in our apartments by the original builder however Sydney Water will not read them. They only read the main meter which registers the total usage so we have to pay the bills from the Admin Fund which means we are paying by UE’s.
Meters installed by developers are called check meters, and are not acceptable to (say) Sydney Water for billing purposes.
Sydney Water, upon request, can change out the non compliant meters ton their own . They do it at no cost to the OC, provided certain conditions are met.Have a look at your bylaws, and see whether they mention embedded networks. Water can fall under embedded networks and is less regulated than electricity. If embedded networks are allowed then the OC may be able to read the check meters and charge on a usage basis.
Yes, there is a simple answer. The right to an individual water meter. I live in QLD. There is now a right to a companion animal. A right for each unit owner to an individual water meter would address the issue at its core. No more lawyers earning money writing and checking general meeting motions, no body corporate managers telling one it’s not equitable and no more water utility providers detailing the requirement for access via common property blocking the path. The technology for remote meter reading is here. There is on issue though. Fair Water Meter’s business model of annual 5 per cent increases.
The right to an individual water meter.Water Meters – one of my pet subjects. In Victoria I am part of an now 50yrs old 8 apt. block and have been a resident of this block for near 40 yrs. I commenced some 25yrs ago requesting individual water meters as I realised that I was subsidising other apartments.
Now, water was not so expensive in those days but I was not in a high paying job so I approached in writing with the same answer of a definite NO. As life proceeded residents after 20 plus years changed with the exception of one who had been placed as the chairperson doing their bidding and now only in the last year has that changed.
The block is now mostly renters which includes a AirBnB / even a young family with babies with the washing machine continually going/ a restaurant owner and family of 4 would send 4-5 staff home to shower as they did split shifts needless to say our water bill was extremely high.
About every 5 yrs I would bring this up again and received always the same answer NO!! It is less than 6 months ago I sent all the information regarding Fair Water Meters QLD to our Strata Manager who replied instantly with the usual NO. Never an explanation so I keep trying.
I am now on the committee (if you can call it that) The ex chairperson blames me for her not still having that position and the new chairperson having just bought the apt did not declare their business in Dog stays and Air BnBs.
As no other owner resides in the block their rents are I suppose is the priority so consequently nothing is every attended to or kept up to the mark nor answered I am not allowed the emails to contact all so I always send to 3 contacts I do have usually with no response including a new chairperson.
Where do I go ?- who do I email ? as many things need addressing on a yearly basis i.e. tree pruning/weeds/pressure cleaning of pathways etc?
P.S One other member who did try and fronted up to being apart of the committee decided that it was all too stressful and was no longer interested. He name stays on the committee register apparently due to numbers. Who has a positive answer for me please.???