Brisbane Water Bill / Charges / Urban Utilities

jonathonsunshine on 18/10/2016 - 19:38

Hello all!

I'm a long time renter and about a month ago I moved out of a unit in Brisbane where we had been for 12 months. Today they sent us a cheery email saying they were ready to refund our bond minus a $80 cleaning fee (fair enough) but then also $420 in water consumption (wtf?!?).

I've been renting for about 8 years in Brisbane and don't recall ever getting water bills at any of them. They also didn't actually give us copies of the bills and I understand that they are issued quarterly.

Advice please!

Home & Garden

Comments

  • captobvious on 18/10/2016 - 19:52

    is there a separate meter for the property you are renting?

  • Ozbargainite on 18/10/2016 - 20:18

    I have 2 units in Bris.
    Get bills from UU every 3 months.
    Latest bills yesterday.
    $206.03 of which
    Fixed access charges were $184.50

    • jonathonsunshine on 18/10/2016 - 20:20

      Edited, didn't interpret properly

      was that bill for both of them? So out of that $206, $184 were fixed access charges that the tenant is not liable for?

      • Ozbargainite on 18/10/2016 - 20:29

        Both bills are for $206.03

        Of that

        State bulk water $ 21.43
        Which includes water usage

        Fixed access $184.50
        Total $206.03

        They must average the water bills
        For the building because both bills are the same.

  • jonathonsunshine on 18/10/2016 - 20:19

    yes, the unit was measured separately and would be deemed water efficient.

    I'm more curious as to if people think those charges actually sound accurate over a 12 month period for a unit with 3 people, a dishwasher but no washing machine.

    Also, Urban Utilites invoice quarterly I believe so I'm curious if they can actually hit us all up for it at once after we've moved out.

    This is the email response we're kicking around atm.

    Hello Donna.

    We understand that water utility charges are issued quarterly and are curious as to why we are only now being charged for the full year over a month after we vacated the premises.

    Also, we received a water bill during our tenancy for $34 so assuming that was indicative of our consumption, we'd expect a bill for the other 9 months to be somewhere in the region of $90.

    We would like copies of the actual bills issued by Urban Utilities.

    Regards, Simon and Garfunkle

    • tomorrows_angel on 19/10/2016 - 16:49

      Do you have a copy of your original lease? It usually details in there if anything can be charged. They would also need to have a water efficiency certificate in order to oncharge water costs to you.

      • jonathonsunshine on 19/10/2016 - 16:53

        Yeah, the lease I've got isn't actually ticked yes OR no which is weird. Though it may be a draft lease. We're dealing with it. Just, it seems really high and I suspect that they are charging us for the sewageconnection etc which we are not liable for. Realestate is requesting the bills from the owner leading me to believe that they haven't even seen them. I think she's just blindly parroting whatever figure the owner has come up with.

  • jonathonsunshine on 19/10/2016 - 23:39

    Something I couldn't find on RTA website, it would be fair to assume that they HAVE to show us the actual bill?

    • tomorrows_angel on 20/10/2016 - 12:52

      Lessors will receive the water bill, pay the full amount and provide their tenants with a copy of any water bills or evidence of water consumption to verify the amount to be charged. Tenants will not be billed directly by water supply authorities.
      Tenants have one month to pay the agreed amount for water consumption after the lessor provides evidence of the costs to the tenant. The lessor/agent can not require the tenant to pay more than the billable amount, or charge tenants late fees.

      https://www.rta.qld.gov.au/Resources/Fact-sheets/General-ten…

      They need to provide evidence. One would assume that would be in the form of a bill.

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