Over half my tenants not paying water bills!! Why is Watercare using me to collect?

[mrsaneperson]

Just wondered if others are having difficulty getting tenants to pay regular water bills? I have the following situations at hand whereby over half my tenants are not paying their water regularly which costs me several hours to followup :

1. Water bills i email them but they are NOT paid on time and often build up to over 3 months or more.

2. One tenant amassed a water bill of over $800 in 1 year in unpaid water

3. Another tenant was wrongly paying money directly to Watercare instead of myself - this caused me many hours trying to conform exactly what he had paid directly.

4. I am now having to administer individual water account summaries for those tenants that lack the discipline to pay their emailed invoices . This takes a lot of my time.

So yes im very unhappy that i am being used as an unpaid debt collection service by Watercare for water i did not use.

Thoughts ?

[donna]

Am I right in assuming you pay the water invoices and then collect the tenants share?

This is how our PMs do it - they show the tenants the total invoice and work out the tenants share and collect the $$ which is deposited to our account. In the meantime we have paid the 'invoices' in full.

cheers,

Donna

[Keithw]

As with any Govt organisation, their actions usually reflect the opposite of their name, ie AKA Water-Dont-Care.
In Aus the water bill is split in two, the owner gets sent the fixed cost part while the tenants must open an account and pay the consumed amount.
I seem to remember someone trying to get that established here but guess WatercDontCare used their monopoly power to prevent them having to put in a little effort and do the collecting themselves, rather than forcing it on LLs.

Just one more reason to keep on pushing the rents up whenever possible in order to cover these costs.
I dont believe in including water in the rent if i can help it, as it relieves the tenant of any visibility or responsibility for the amount of water they consume

[Sanya]

Just wondered if others are having difficulty getting tenants to pay regular water bills? I have the following situations at hand whereby over half my tenants are not paying their water regularly which costs me several hours to followup :

1. Water bills i email them but they are NOT paid on time and often build up to over 3 months or more.

2. One tenant amassed a water bill of over $800 in 1 year in unpaid water

3. Another tenant was wrongly paying money directly to Watercare instead of myself - this caused me many hours trying to conform exactly what he had paid directly.

4. I am now having to administer individual water account summaries for those tenants that lack the discipline to pay their emailed invoices . This takes a lot of my time.

So yes im very unhappy that i am being used as an unpaid debt collection service by Watercare for water i did not use.

Thoughts ?

Do you use a property manager?

My PM directly pays water invoices and then collects the tenants share (the water usage component) from the tenant and subsequently reimburses this amount to my account.

Tenants can be very tardy in paying water usage charges - something I just have to live with - but as water invoices as paid directly and in full at least no penalties are incurred with the utility.

[mrsaneperson]

Yes I email them the complete watercare invoice as an attachment and deduct the fixed amount off, informing them of the figure they owe. They are instructed to pay into my account, one tenant mistakenly paid watercare directly . I have all my watercare bill payments deducted automatically from my credit card.
Sadly many of my tenants are behind or pay sporadically which then means I need to form a summary account, which all takes time.
I've been doing this for many years and manage my own properties.
In effect if the tenant does not pay - as landlords we are landed with the bill.
I've been considering to include water in the rent up to a maximum figure or usage amount. Anything above that amount would then be payable by the tenant. Not a bad idea as it worked well with another property I have. It certainly cuts down on the admin side.

[Keys]

Sadly many of my tenants are behind or pay sporadically...........

I must have misunderstood your postings on other thread topics. I understood that you had things locked down and all written out with no chance for misunderstandings.

[mrsaneperson]

These are not misunderstanding Keys I'm sure you know that. Tenants sometimes choose not to pay their bills.

[erinak]

Yes, I'm sure he understands it well but as often plays the devil's advocate for some reason.

[donna]

Maybe it's time to use a PM to manage and then the responsibility is on them to do the collecting. For the small management fee it works out cheaper if you consider the time it takes you to manage etc. Unless of course your time is free!

cheers,

Donna

[PC]

Power company bills direct.
Phone company bills direct.
Every other service I can think of - bills direct.
But water - huh - why not???
Just more insane Government/Council stupidity we have to battle against.

[klauster]

Power company bills direct.
Phone company bills direct.
Every other service I can think of - bills direct.
But water - huh - why not???
Just more insane Government/Council stupidity we have to battle against.

I don’t see it as “Council stupidity” charging LL for tenant’s expenses. It’s actually clever holding LL to ransom.

Councils in other countries provide services that get charged to households (the consumer) including rubbish collection and services for public facilities.

[mrsaneperson]

Maybe it's time to use a PM to manage and then the responsibility is on them to do the collecting. For the small management fee it works out cheaper if you consider the time it takes you to manage etc. Unless of course your time is free!

cheers,

Donna

My main occupation is landlord so I'm doing it myself as since starting Ive acquired 12 rentals over the course of 30 years..But yes certainly if i had a fuller occupation then a PM would be a consideration. Though tbh i know myself that NO property manager would be looking after my best interests as much as what i am currently doing, particularly situations that are urgent or need to be dealt with in a timely manner regards leaks or maintenance. From reading here and general observations, the majority of PMs are very poor and this includes many of the ones attached to supposedly reputable firms . Perhaps you may have got a good one either that or just a good tenant in which case you could quite easily do it yourself and save the usual 8% + gst fee they charge on the rent, as you will still have to be actively involved regarding quotations for trades people which i understand they add on 10% to quotations. Probably around $3k minimum over a year - could have a nice holiday for that..

[Anthonyacat]

Not a solution to your underlying problem, but something that may help you with administration - perhaps a lot.

Watercare offers the ability to pay the fixed charges upfront once per year, meaning that you then get the bill for the volumetric charges only. No need to split the bill anymore, just forward the whole thing to the tenant. If they pay watercare direct, you end up paying less in your next credit card payment, and it's easy to see what happened. You keep a track of how much you've been charged on your credit card, versus how much the tenants have paid you, and it's a much simpler ledger.

[mrsaneperson]

Not a solution to your underlying problem, but something that may help you with administration - perhaps a lot.

Watercare offers the ability to pay the fixed charges upfront once per year, meaning that you then get the bill for the volumetric charges only. No need to split the bill anymore, just forward the whole thing to the tenant. If they pay watercare direct, you end up paying less in your next credit card payment, and it's easy to see what happened. You keep a track of how much you've been charged on your credit card, versus how much the tenants have paid you, and it's a much simpler ledger.

Good point and this is what one of my new tenants did do as his prior landlord had him paying direct to Watercare. As long as the landlord pays up front the fixed fee its easy to see what is going on and youre right the admin angle is taken out of it. Might consider that for any new tenants.

[donna]

I don’t see it as “Council stupidity” charging LL for tenant’s expenses. It’s actually clever holding LL to ransom.

Councils in other countries provide services that get charged to households (the consumer) including rubbish collection and services for public facilities.

And in the UK the consumer pays 'council tax' i.e. the resident in the dwelling - not the LL. Our rates is their council tax another smart move to user pays.

cheers,

Donna