Am I paying my landlord’s bills?

The question of granny flats  and who pays the power bills has been turned on its head by a Flat Chat reader who lives in the main house while the landlord lives in the  building out the back.

“When I moved in he told me he has separate meters for utilities eg: gas, electric and Water,” says Manxey. “My power was cut off the other day as my direct debit failed, but I noticed so was my landlord’s power.  I paid the bill and the power was re-connected.
“I checked to see if there were any other meters on the granny flat and I found one Electric meter box.    However when I switched all the power switches to my property off, the power also went off in his granny flat.

“I’ve been living here for two years and I have never seen a power bill arrive in his name,” says Manxey on the Flat Chat Forum.  “I think I’ve been paying the whole lot … gas, electric and water.  What can I do?”

First of all, it depends where you live.  Renting out Granny flats is actively encouraged in NSW and permitted in Tasmania, the Northern Territory and Western Australia.

But in Victoria, South Australia and Queensland, they are only permitted for  bona fide relatives.  That said, plenty of people do rent them out illegally for cash in hand which leads to a whole other set of problems if you feel the need to go to the authorities for help.

Even in areas the forbid granny flat renting,  it’s hard to know how the powers that be – including local councils – would regard one being occupied by the owner while they rented out the main building.

Getting back to the questionable utilities supply, in NSW, there are differences in who pays for what depending on the set-up. If your meters aren’t truly separate from your landlord’s, you shouldn’t be paying any utility bills, let alone his and  yours.

If your water meters are separate and water efficiency measures are in place, tenants pay for their water usage.  But under any other circumstances – such as separate meters but no water efficiency  measures – the landlord pays for the lot.

In Victoria, if your meters aren’t truly separate from your landlord’s, you shouldn’t be paying any utility bills, let alone his as well as yours.

Also, most of Victoria should have been converted to ‘smart’ electricity meters by now.  If the one on the Granny flat is the old electro-mechanical type, it’s probably not being read.  The other meters could be inside the granny flat and being read electronically … but how would you know?

In Queensland, according to the Tenants Union (TUQ), if you do not have an individual meter for a service, or the account is not in your name, you can only be required to pay for the utility if this is stated in the agreement.

If your power and water supply are shared with other premises and not individually metered, the agreement should state how your share will be calculated and how you will pay the money.

Also in Queensland, the landlord  can only ask you to pay the full cost of water consumption if the premises are considered ‘water efficient’.

“This means that toilets must be dual flush, and shower heads and all internal cold water taps must have a fl ow rate no greater than 9 litres per minute,” says the TUQ website in THIS fact sheet.

So what does Manxey do? He could tell the landlord he’s done an audit on his power usage and it doesn’t add up.  Can he have a look at his utility bills to see if either of them is being overcharged?

Readers in Victoria will find more on this, and comment on it, HERE  In NSW and the rest of Australia, go HERE to read the original post in full as well as Flat Chatters’ comments.

For advice on your tenancy wherever you are in Australia, you’ll find a page of links on the Tenants Union website HERE .