landlord pays for tenants water if it is tank supply

[Padeha]

I was very suprised to hear from the adjudicator at the tenancy tribunal that the landlord pays for tank water where there is no metered water. Put simply if there is no rain and the tenant uses all the water the landlord has to pay for water. Where I am it costs around $180 to fill. The adjudicator referred to section 39 of the RTA in support of this.

[Keys]

Fit a meter.

[Viking]

I go on a bit about water and rates and am intrigued a bit by this.
If your water is supplied by a council and charged as part of your rates assessment and not separately metered can one fit a meter and charge the tenant?
Supposedly one can but the next question is at what rate can one charge?.From memory the RTA is silent on this.

[Tan]

What a pain. The only thing it appears you can do if they are using heaps of water is just fill the tank 1/4 full and make them wait as long as possible with no water when it empties.

Of course, if their use is reasonable, be reasonable.

[cube]

Fit a meter.

It's got a bloddy great meter, that counts very slowly .... 1 tank ...... 2 tanks......

[Aston]

just fill the tank 1/4 full and make them wait as long as possible with no water when it empties.

It may seem unfair but you can't do that.

If your tenants are unreasonable in this situation... get rid of the tenants and get reasonable ones.

[Tan]

Why not?

There are stats somewhere on average water usage. Surely this can be used as an argument for providing them with enough.

[Aston]

(2) The landlord shall not interfere with the supply of gas, electricity,
water, telephone services, or other services to the
premises, except where the interference is necessary to avoid
danger to any person or to enable maintenance or repairs to be
carried out.

The bottom line here means that the tenant must have a continuous supply of water .

[Perry]

Hhhmmm, I think using the word interfere
in this context is quite a stretch. I'd go so
far as to say applying it to filling a water
tank is a very dubious construction on that
word in that clause.
.

[beachy]

Keys is right

Fit a gauge, if the tenant can tell how much water he has left in the tank they can be liable for the water this is a "meter"

they cost around $130 for a basic shop bought one. or two ball cock floats a piece of rod and a tube for rod to slide in can be slung together quite cheaply.

[Padeha]

I think in most cases it will be too difficult for an existing tank water supply to meet the three criteria so its a cost that needs to be taken into consideration when setting rents etc.

http://www.dbh.govt.nz/water-charges

[drelly]

I think that unless you're blocking the ability for the tank to fill from rainfall, or somehow have some control over where and how rain falls, you're not interfering with the supply of water at all by not filling the tank. The tenants must have been aware that the house was on tank supply, so are responsible for their own water consumption costs as they would be on town supply.

[Padeha]

The RTA is quite clear the landlord pays for refills of the tank unless the supply can meet the three requirements mentioned in the Act and in the link above which in many cases may not be able to be met especially for an existing tenancy where water is not mentioned in the TA. I was surprised at this and that is why I raised it but it has been raised before so may be common knowledge. The tenant was complaining to the tribunal about the quality of the water and the adjudicator asked about the guttering obviously with a view to determining whether I as the landlord had supplied water AND whether it was of good quality etc. In the end it did not go any further as the adjudicator determined that the tenant had never complained to me about the water and it had not run out so end of story. But as I said I was surprised that something that is used up by the tenant and it is in the lap of the gods as to whether it rains or not has to be paid for by the landlord. The tenant also said I had the electricity cut off and the adjudicator determined that I did not interfere with the supply of electricity to the property.

[drelly]

Something for the next RTA review!

[Tan]

its a cost that needs to be taken into consideration when setting rents etc. http://www.dbh.govt.nz/water-charges

Great link, thanks.

Surely rents are set at market value - the level a tenant is willing to pay.

You can't say mortgage+rates+insurance+water etc = X and expect to get that amount.

Rentals outside town areas tend to rent for less due to lack of demand.