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Topic
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After recently signing a tenancy agreement the Real Estate agent then casually let me know that I would need to pay a $50.00 deposit to the building manager for the hot water to be turned on
On discussing this with the building manager its turns out that each tenant in the building actually pays there own hot water that is billed separately to each tenant. Quote: “The hot water is heated in the building”
The agent said they did not know about this charge but they would get me an expalantion (I’m still waiting for that) . Having looked at the NSW Tenants site it only refers to water that is seperatel metered not “hot”water that is heated.
I’m still of course paying a separate electricity bill which I’m assuming excludes “hot water”
Should I been told about this earlier and should it be annexed on the tenancy agreement?
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I would expect that unit owners might be liable for such a charge but not tenants directly. If there is a sound basis for charging for hot water provided to a unit, then the OC would bill the owner. I would expect that the owner then may or may not be able to pass on the cost depending on what is in the tenancy agreement.
I am in a similar situation…! (My hot water cylinder supplies hot water for 6 other tenants…!) I am very interested to hear what your agent came up with for an explanation and what happened. 🙂
Have another look at your tenancy agreement especially this section:
10. The tenant agrees to pay:
10.5 water usage charges, if the landlord has installed water efficiency measures referred to in clause 11 and the residential premises.
I believe it would also depend on whether the hot water is metered or just a % of the total. If it is metered and you only pay for what you use then it’s reasonable (subject to 10.5).