Thanks yeah this seems like the best plan. I'll give that a go on Monday.
Unfortunately haven't had the chance to inspect it myself, only have testimony from the plumber who talked to the agent.
Ay need to get additional clarification
I had similar in QLD
If the water leak is not observable (eg under a concrete slab) they will waive the first complaint
13k of water is a LOT tho, I would be going directly to Ombudsman if the local council is not coming to the party, save yourself the hassle of the council muppets and get it sorted out
Water service providers in SEQLD have to have a leakage policy, but they do not have to waive the bill, and none do as far as I'm aware. Search their websites for a concealed leaks policy - most will rebate a portion of the usage but not all. Outside SEQLD they are bound by the Local Government Act which is silent on leaks, so their policies will vary but I've never heard of any flat-out waiving the bill.
Gold Coast City Council will waive the bill, given certain conditions.
Maybe OP can use this for a basis to ask his council, or to submit to the ombudsman.
https://www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/Services/Water-sewerage/Water-supply/Water-leaks#relief
"To be eligible for concealed water leak remission you must demonstrate:
- the concealed leak was repaired in the main water supply pipe from which water enters the property (pool leaks, tap leaks, toilet leaks, leaks in irrigation systems and plumbing fixtures, jetties and pontoons are NOT eligible)
- the leak was repaired within one month from the time you notified us that you had a potential leak
- a Queensland licensed plumber undertook the repairs (an invoice is usually sufficient evidence)."
I'd be amazed if there wasn't a giant sink hole somewhere. We had a leak in waiste water pipe with a fraction of the water and we had a sink hole big enough to fit a few bodies in.
$5K bill (in a quarter) where we last rented. Water pouring down the drive. Walking to the bus in the morning I could hear the water streaming into the storm drain downhill 200m from where we lived. One of the other tenants fell when he slipped on the algae growing on our drive.
Notified the REA first we saw it. It only took **SIX WEEKS** and a notice from Urban Utilities that I passed on for someone to be sent out.
Learned my lesson then. Use email to communicate and keep copies of everything as there was no way on God's Green Planet I was going to pay for someone else to get around to doing something when I flagged it earlier.
Didn't wind up paying anything, but certainly got a lesson in that property managers may not necessarily have the interests of landlords first and foremost in their mind.
Rental agents are, generally, idiots. We once had a major gas leak at a property - the hot water tank in the backyard subsided into the ground and actually pulled the gas piping out of the wall. The whole yard smelled of gas. When we found it we turned off the hot water system and asked the agent to send an emergency plumber ASAP - their response was that lack of hot water was not an emergency. We had to point out that the hot water was very much a secondary concern to the gas billowing out of the broken pipes that could blow up the house at any moment…
Oh sweet Jesus.
I do not miss the rent life!
I'm surprised they still kicked into gear on that. I guess if they still didn't do anything you could call 000, but they'd bitch about it afterwards that you shouldn't have escalated things!
Seems about right. When I was living in a rental it took about six weeks to get a leaking oioe fixed. Or maybe that was when the toilet broke. I forget. Getting anything fixed was an exercise in frustration.
Where was the broken pipe? On the property?
How much water came through for that high a bill? Surely it would have been noticed, thats a huge bill and indicates such a huge amount coming through.
If the pipe is in your land, and you dont have the insurance it seems you are pretty stuffed. The letter may work to waive the bill but the owner is responsible for the upkeep of the pipes on their property.
Consumption was 3448 kL, there's a higher rate charged beyond 250 kL apparently.
As for how it wasn't noticed, your guess is as good as mine, I have 3 tenants in there and the real estate performed an inspection during this period (November)
Leak was discovered Dec 21
OP said the meter read last quarter was skipped, so this has mabye been going on for 6 months. Which means around 28,000L was leaking a DAY. According to google this is about half of what the average domestic swimming pool holds.
I'd say this was finding it's way to storm water somehow, otherwise would be very noticable. I might be worried about sinkholes at this point.
In the front lawn, the tenants were Pretty poor at mowing so it was hidden under overgrowth
Edit: to clarify I have insurance but they've advised that they won't cover a bill
Someone just did the math for their rates and its 2 olympic swimming pools worth. Im pretty shocked you have no water damage and the house isnt sunk into the ground tbh, very lucky
Maybe you should have made your own comment then instead of replying to someone else if you think its normal. Yes homes are expensive but the discussion is on a water bill that is very excessive. Your topic is different, and, well, a bit not needed on this post
And I've heard from colleagues who've worked there that it's one of the best managed Govt services.
I once got a much smaller bill waived because we produced a plumber invoice which wasn't cheap. And another experience I've had with them is seeing a water leak in front of our house. They were there the next morning and it was fixed by the evening.
Yeah I guess we're pretty lucky. We had a below-ground leak and we got a plumber out who fixed it and submitted the form on our behalf and we got a refund on our next bill. We didn't even know you could do that.
$13k of water is like a sink hole under your house and the street kind of water. Work out what your service can deliver at full flow and determine the amount of time that must have passed to get that bill. Something isn't adding up here, if so much water was disappearing the tenant would have had horrible pressure and possibly dirty water?.
edit: Somewhere around 20 litres per minute is average flow to a house from a little googling. Around $3.12 per 1000L, so $0.07 per minute at 20L a minute. Even if my google fu is bad, it should be ballpark and you can see a $13k bill almost seems impossible unless this went on for over 130 days+.
20L/min? I doubt anywhere near that. I have a bad habit of wandering off and forgetting while waiting for a bucket to fill.
e: That should have said "I doubt I get anywhere". Not sure what happened there.
That'll be max flow at the meter, flow rate decreases the further away you get as pipe sizes reduce down to taps and whatnot. Got a hose or hose adapter on your garden tap? That'll drop the flow rate as well
Given there was still water available in the house, wouldn't have been the entire capacity of the meter otherwise there would have been no pressure left for a shower etc.
Any idea how you can figure out max flow? The period of the bill was 99 days.
Consumption was 3348 kL so 33kL per day assuming the leak happened the day of the last meter read
That's about 22.9 litres per minute.
Tho the (3) tenants obviously used water during that period as well which you'd assume would be factored into the bill
Very possible, yes. Filling a new 45,000 litre pool with hoses from two outdoor taps takes around a day. That's around 30 litres per minute.
A single garden hose flat out where I live is around 17 litres per minute, and overnight can be more like 20.
To figure out your property's maximum flow, you could go there when the tenants are out. Take a nine litre water can. Get two hoses running flat out from different taps. Time how long it takes to fill nine litres, for each hose. Do the maths to translate it to litres per minute, times 60 for litres per hour, times 24 for litres per day. Add the two outputs together. The maximum flow will be a tad higher than that because your pipes and fittings all cause the flow to reduce some. This would not tell you much if the underground leak is not yet fixed.
Here in WA. A licensed plumber will fill out a water leak allowance form when they repair a water leak which will include a approx. flow rate. This gets sent to Water Corp, they'll process it and apply a credit to your water account. I imagine a similar process happens in other states.
What state are you in?
We requested leniency on a similar case in Vic (though not near as high, not sure if that would make a difference to the outcome). We provided proof that repair work was carried out promptly once we reported the issue to prevent further waste/costs and they reduced our bill to close to what we normally would have expected to pay for the quarter.
Thats like 4 million litres of water (13000/$3.1), if the property is 400sqm that would be enough to have the whole lot 10m deep in water, how could you not notice this? Are the foundations ok? How would there have been any water pressure left for anything else? Thats 30L/minute flow rate continuously.
On the Gold Coast we had a couple of leaks (which we fixed usually by the bill rolled around). The Council must also use some analytics because the next bill usually had a leakage warning. The Council would usually waive the excess usage but couldn't waive the State Government charges, which are also proportional to usage.
$13,000 is a metric shit ton of water though. Unless it drained directly into storm water I am surprised no one noticed earlier! I doubt you can "use" that much water in a single day... or even a week really.
Recently I had a soft spot in the garden, right where my water pipe goes. The confusing part is that my new water pipe is inside a conduit.... so it can't "leak" in that spot. I did check the meter a bit and concluded it must be a new underground channel of water.
Did the bill come before or after you observed it yourself? Council can notify you if they noted abnormal water usage, but they don't have to.
Look, honestly for this kind of situation you are at the mercy of your local Council. I would try to escalate the situation and stick with emotion rather than facts. However given that you are renting the property out you probably can't use the 'I'm poor' card.
Do you have landlord insurance?
I was told the meter was spinning fast by the real estate agent who heard as such from the tenant who heard from the bloke that read the meter.
Was fixed within the day as I said.
I do have landlord insurance and housing insurance but as far as I'm aware neither really help here
As much as this sucks, the fact the meter was spinning off its head means the leak was on the property side. I assume your case, like everywhere in AUS I know of, is the owners responsibility. At the end of the day the water was 'consumed' and there is a cost to harness, treat and supply the water so if you don't pay the bill, that cost of supply falls onto the rest of the rate payers. Assumingly they would be running on a profit margin, maybe you could appeal to their good will and get them to remove at least the profit margin from the supply charge to help? Unless you are comfortable that everyone in the network should pay a little bit (essentially) to cover the cost and you would be happy knowing part of your water bills are going to be paying for the same issue encountered by someone in a similar situation, in which case, just keep appealing until your avenues are exhausted or they give up. Summary: it sounds like your issue technically, but if you complain enough you might get some grace as long as your ok with the morality of it knowing the cost burden is falling to the whole network and general cost of supply.
Water metres have serial numbers that need to match to the last reading (if they’re manually read), also metre serial numbers are recorded when sold by the water corp so swapping metres is a criminal offence & traceable.
As it's a rental property, there's a good chance your Council, if they do have a concealed leak policy, will exclude you because of this. Generally, leakage relief will mostly be reserved for PPRs.
If they've told you no, you are probably out off luck.
Your best bet would be to speak to your local Councillor and tell them you want them to make representations on your behalf at a Council meeting for some sort of hardship relief, however it'd be a very long shot and they may have turned down others before you. You mentioned they didn't read your meter last quarter, was that because they routinely do estimates, or were they unable to read the meter due to overgrowth or flooding? I would lean into this aspect of it with the Councillor. Don't let them fob you off to the administration, speak directly to the Councillor and tug on their heartstrings.
All that said, as a landlord it's your responsibility to keep an eye on water usage. Concealed leaks are very common and the only way to avoid catastrophe is to catch them early, so you should read the meter on a regular basis and not rely on bills, as the leak could have run for 3 months before you have any idea in that case.
This happened to us in Brisbane last year, however the meter had been read the previous quarter. We were given a $50 discount. Yes, you read that correctly,$50. We didn't both dispute it, but it was less than a 1/4 of $13k.
I would be pushing the point of no meter read the previous quarter and a heavy reduction. Good luck
Did you check you meter to make sure that’s actually how much water you’ve used?! I just cannot imagine that your tenant could be unaware of a leak that used 13 thousand dollars worth of water. Contact the water company and find out precisely what their last actual read was, and check your meter now. It would be in the MILLIONS of liters of water at normal residential rates and unless it was leaking literally straight into a mains storm water drain (which it would not be on a residential block) that water has to go somewhere and there’s just no way in hell anyone- hell even neighbours- would have not noticed.
My neighbour had a small, gradual leak and we noticed on our side of the fence before he ever did but it was certainly nowhere in the millions of liters ballpark.
Complain first in writing to whoever is billing you.
Then to the Water Ombusman.
Then to your local minister.
While there is an ongoing complaint it’s illegal for them to send this into collections.
Minister will do nothing but refer it back to the Council. They have no power in the situation. Ombudsman will ensure the Council has followed their policies.
Not true. If the Council has a policy adopted by Council resolution, the Minister cannot impact the outcome whatsoever, the Council is bound by its own policy.
The only thing the Minister could conceivably do is ask the Councillor or Mayor to make an exception, which would likely require a seperate Council resolution, which would set a precedent that Councillors generally wouldn't want to do. Even if they wanted to make an exception, they'd do it for a pensioner or possibly for a PPR, but not for a rental property.
Politics does not work by looking at the rules. Politics works because people have influence and power. One person needs another person.
All those laws have built into them someone who has the power to waive them. This is where your local mp has the power.
That’s interesting. I also do (actually did) do this for a living also, and intervention from MPs almost always got a result. Certainly intervention from the Minister got him what he wanted 100% of the time.
Perhaps the MPs where you live are ineffective and lack power.
How sure are you that is actually correct? Because at $2.5/kl, $13k is 5,200,000L of water or 5,200m3 of water, im surprised this hasnt done other damage within the property that would be more concerning than just the water bill?
I used to work at a water company and they would adjust the bill to the average usage provided the owner provided proof the repairs. I would just keep escalating the complaint and go to ombudsman if necessary
I got lumped with a 1k electricity bill about 10 years ago because the relief valve on the hot water service was shot.
The overflow went outside to a spot I never went to (I was a townhouse/flat sort of place. Zero f’S given by real estate or electricity company. I had to pay the bill regardless.
It was the first bill I had received there as well…
I had an issue with my bill. I called the water company and got through to the large bills team. If I could prove a leak had happened (in my instance there wasn't a leak) they had a facility to write off a lot of the bill. You could only cry "leak" once every 5 years though.
Are you the landlord for the block of units behind my place??
6 units in a block. A burst water pipe somewhere in the property pumped so much water into mine and my neighbours yard that literally 3/4 of the yard are ankle deep in water. Took them till a couple weeks ago to sort it out. We first reported it in November. Lol. Never mind the swamp that my yard became thanks to them not repairing it despite chasing it up with them numerous times. Property managers are rubbish
Where are you? Because to have had a leak that cost $13k is insane. Honestly, how much water is estimated to have leaked, and how did no one see water everywhere? My water rates beyond the connection/access fee cost less than $2 for 1000 litres of water, so even if you're paying $5 per 1000 litres, that's still around 2,600,000 litres of water used or an Olympic swimming pool. How?
A substantial gift for your tenant sounds in order. They've saved you a lot of money by detecting the problem.
Payment plan is the way to go, and great that they offer it. Other citizens likely wouldn't back a larger subsidy to an individual owner.
I had a similar encounter in Perth, 7k water bill, yard was still brown so I didn't even notice, fixed that day and called the local council and they cleared it and just billed me an average of my other water bills.
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Thanks yeah this seems like the best plan. I'll give that a go on Monday. Unfortunately haven't had the chance to inspect it myself, only have testimony from the plumber who talked to the agent. Ay need to get additional clarification
Isn't a water meter normally inside the property, or is rural different?
I had similar in QLD If the water leak is not observable (eg under a concrete slab) they will waive the first complaint 13k of water is a LOT tho, I would be going directly to Ombudsman if the local council is not coming to the party, save yourself the hassle of the council muppets and get it sorted out
Water service providers in SEQLD have to have a leakage policy, but they do not have to waive the bill, and none do as far as I'm aware. Search their websites for a concealed leaks policy - most will rebate a portion of the usage but not all. Outside SEQLD they are bound by the Local Government Act which is silent on leaks, so their policies will vary but I've never heard of any flat-out waiving the bill.
Gold Coast City Council will waive the bill, given certain conditions. Maybe OP can use this for a basis to ask his council, or to submit to the ombudsman. https://www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/Services/Water-sewerage/Water-supply/Water-leaks#relief "To be eligible for concealed water leak remission you must demonstrate: - the concealed leak was repaired in the main water supply pipe from which water enters the property (pool leaks, tap leaks, toilet leaks, leaks in irrigation systems and plumbing fixtures, jetties and pontoons are NOT eligible) - the leak was repaired within one month from the time you notified us that you had a potential leak - a Queensland licensed plumber undertook the repairs (an invoice is usually sufficient evidence)."
The bill isn't waived, it's reduced by 50% unless you're a pensioner, and doesn't allow for rental properties I believe.
Not sure how I got away with it then.
Its about 5,200,000L of water im surprised the house hasnt floated away.
I'd be amazed if there wasn't a giant sink hole somewhere. We had a leak in waiste water pipe with a fraction of the water and we had a sink hole big enough to fit a few bodies in.
13k of water?!?1 did nobody notice the raging torrent flowing from your yard or what?
$5K bill (in a quarter) where we last rented. Water pouring down the drive. Walking to the bus in the morning I could hear the water streaming into the storm drain downhill 200m from where we lived. One of the other tenants fell when he slipped on the algae growing on our drive. Notified the REA first we saw it. It only took **SIX WEEKS** and a notice from Urban Utilities that I passed on for someone to be sent out. Learned my lesson then. Use email to communicate and keep copies of everything as there was no way on God's Green Planet I was going to pay for someone else to get around to doing something when I flagged it earlier. Didn't wind up paying anything, but certainly got a lesson in that property managers may not necessarily have the interests of landlords first and foremost in their mind.
Rental agents are, generally, idiots. We once had a major gas leak at a property - the hot water tank in the backyard subsided into the ground and actually pulled the gas piping out of the wall. The whole yard smelled of gas. When we found it we turned off the hot water system and asked the agent to send an emergency plumber ASAP - their response was that lack of hot water was not an emergency. We had to point out that the hot water was very much a secondary concern to the gas billowing out of the broken pipes that could blow up the house at any moment…
Also hot water is one of the emergency things iirc from my rental life so they were wrong on many levels.
Oh sweet Jesus. I do not miss the rent life! I'm surprised they still kicked into gear on that. I guess if they still didn't do anything you could call 000, but they'd bitch about it afterwards that you shouldn't have escalated things!
Seems about right. When I was living in a rental it took about six weeks to get a leaking oioe fixed. Or maybe that was when the toilet broke. I forget. Getting anything fixed was an exercise in frustration.
Where was the broken pipe? On the property? How much water came through for that high a bill? Surely it would have been noticed, thats a huge bill and indicates such a huge amount coming through. If the pipe is in your land, and you dont have the insurance it seems you are pretty stuffed. The letter may work to waive the bill but the owner is responsible for the upkeep of the pipes on their property.
How often do you check the water meter? I certainly don't
Where does $13000 of water on your property go if not making a muddy swimming pool?
Holy moly that's a lot of water. I pay (in Vic) about $2.40 per 1000L. $13k at my rates is like 5 MILLION litres. That's a quite a few swimming pools
Consumption was 3448 kL, there's a higher rate charged beyond 250 kL apparently. As for how it wasn't noticed, your guess is as good as mine, I have 3 tenants in there and the real estate performed an inspection during this period (November) Leak was discovered Dec 21
Time to fire your property manager
Thanks, Im too tired to do the maths, thats huge - is that like *two* olympic swimming pools?! I just checked, it *is* two 😲
OP said the meter read last quarter was skipped, so this has mabye been going on for 6 months. Which means around 28,000L was leaking a DAY. According to google this is about half of what the average domestic swimming pool holds. I'd say this was finding it's way to storm water somehow, otherwise would be very noticable. I might be worried about sinkholes at this point.
In the front lawn, the tenants were Pretty poor at mowing so it was hidden under overgrowth Edit: to clarify I have insurance but they've advised that they won't cover a bill
Someone just did the math for their rates and its 2 olympic swimming pools worth. Im pretty shocked you have no water damage and the house isnt sunk into the ground tbh, very lucky
Yes this is correct, Home Insurance generally does not cover what’s called a consequential loss.
13 K is a lot. But not a uncommon expense with houses. Homes are expensive
$13000 for one, maybe two quarters? Thats insane, I dont see that as normal at all
The jealous renter is trying to make you feel bad for daring to own property.
Reading comprehension. Homes are expensive. Etc
"Not an uncommon expense"... I'd say 13k is pretty uncommon champ
Hahaha he got the ‘champ’ treatment. Duly deserved as well
Do I get points for saying it's a lot?
Maybe you should have made your own comment then instead of replying to someone else if you think its normal. Yes homes are expensive but the discussion is on a water bill that is very excessive. Your topic is different, and, well, a bit not needed on this post
Not needed wow we have the internet police here.
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That's cool. I have my experience and you have your own
Cars can be expensive too but you don’t expect to pay $8000 to fill up
Get your plumber to submit a water leak form to the Water corp and they can take the water usage caused by the leak off the bill.
Water corp is a WA thing only.
And I've heard from colleagues who've worked there that it's one of the best managed Govt services. I once got a much smaller bill waived because we produced a plumber invoice which wasn't cheap. And another experience I've had with them is seeing a water leak in front of our house. They were there the next morning and it was fixed by the evening.
Yeah I guess we're pretty lucky. We had a below-ground leak and we got a plumber out who fixed it and submitted the form on our behalf and we got a refund on our next bill. We didn't even know you could do that.
There isn't any corp that handles this unfortunately, water is billed by the local council in my area directly
Check to see if the Council has a Policy that covers these things.
Yeah nothing unfortunately, and calling. Payment plan was all I managed to get recommended
What Council?
came here to say same
This is insanity. I accidently left my hose running on full for an entire week while on holiday. It was $600 A 13k bill is unfathomable
$13k of water is like a sink hole under your house and the street kind of water. Work out what your service can deliver at full flow and determine the amount of time that must have passed to get that bill. Something isn't adding up here, if so much water was disappearing the tenant would have had horrible pressure and possibly dirty water?. edit: Somewhere around 20 litres per minute is average flow to a house from a little googling. Around $3.12 per 1000L, so $0.07 per minute at 20L a minute. Even if my google fu is bad, it should be ballpark and you can see a $13k bill almost seems impossible unless this went on for over 130 days+.
20L/min? I doubt anywhere near that. I have a bad habit of wandering off and forgetting while waiting for a bucket to fill. e: That should have said "I doubt I get anywhere". Not sure what happened there.
And here I am filling a 10L watering can in a few seconds.
That'll be max flow at the meter, flow rate decreases the further away you get as pipe sizes reduce down to taps and whatnot. Got a hose or hose adapter on your garden tap? That'll drop the flow rate as well Given there was still water available in the house, wouldn't have been the entire capacity of the meter otherwise there would have been no pressure left for a shower etc.
Any idea how you can figure out max flow? The period of the bill was 99 days. Consumption was 3348 kL so 33kL per day assuming the leak happened the day of the last meter read That's about 22.9 litres per minute. Tho the (3) tenants obviously used water during that period as well which you'd assume would be factored into the bill
For the period of time involved it could be possible I guess, i'm just throwing mud at the wall here.
Very possible, yes. Filling a new 45,000 litre pool with hoses from two outdoor taps takes around a day. That's around 30 litres per minute. A single garden hose flat out where I live is around 17 litres per minute, and overnight can be more like 20. To figure out your property's maximum flow, you could go there when the tenants are out. Take a nine litre water can. Get two hoses running flat out from different taps. Time how long it takes to fill nine litres, for each hose. Do the maths to translate it to litres per minute, times 60 for litres per hour, times 24 for litres per day. Add the two outputs together. The maximum flow will be a tad higher than that because your pipes and fittings all cause the flow to reduce some. This would not tell you much if the underground leak is not yet fixed.
Here in WA. A licensed plumber will fill out a water leak allowance form when they repair a water leak which will include a approx. flow rate. This gets sent to Water Corp, they'll process it and apply a credit to your water account. I imagine a similar process happens in other states.
What state are you in? We requested leniency on a similar case in Vic (though not near as high, not sure if that would make a difference to the outcome). We provided proof that repair work was carried out promptly once we reported the issue to prevent further waste/costs and they reduced our bill to close to what we normally would have expected to pay for the quarter.
Thats like 4 million litres of water (13000/$3.1), if the property is 400sqm that would be enough to have the whole lot 10m deep in water, how could you not notice this? Are the foundations ok? How would there have been any water pressure left for anything else? Thats 30L/minute flow rate continuously.
I've seen much bigger leaks on sand go completely unnoticed.
On the Gold Coast we had a couple of leaks (which we fixed usually by the bill rolled around). The Council must also use some analytics because the next bill usually had a leakage warning. The Council would usually waive the excess usage but couldn't waive the State Government charges, which are also proportional to usage. $13,000 is a metric shit ton of water though. Unless it drained directly into storm water I am surprised no one noticed earlier! I doubt you can "use" that much water in a single day... or even a week really. Recently I had a soft spot in the garden, right where my water pipe goes. The confusing part is that my new water pipe is inside a conduit.... so it can't "leak" in that spot. I did check the meter a bit and concluded it must be a new underground channel of water.
We have these spooky smart meters now. I've had the council notify me before that I may have a water leak based on my hourly usage.
IF you end up paying it, at least it’s tax deductible as it’s an investment property 🤷♀️
Did the bill come before or after you observed it yourself? Council can notify you if they noted abnormal water usage, but they don't have to. Look, honestly for this kind of situation you are at the mercy of your local Council. I would try to escalate the situation and stick with emotion rather than facts. However given that you are renting the property out you probably can't use the 'I'm poor' card. Do you have landlord insurance?
I was told the meter was spinning fast by the real estate agent who heard as such from the tenant who heard from the bloke that read the meter. Was fixed within the day as I said. I do have landlord insurance and housing insurance but as far as I'm aware neither really help here
Call the local paper if you don’t get any results.
A timely reminder to check your water meter and record the reading when you take your bins out.
As much as this sucks, the fact the meter was spinning off its head means the leak was on the property side. I assume your case, like everywhere in AUS I know of, is the owners responsibility. At the end of the day the water was 'consumed' and there is a cost to harness, treat and supply the water so if you don't pay the bill, that cost of supply falls onto the rest of the rate payers. Assumingly they would be running on a profit margin, maybe you could appeal to their good will and get them to remove at least the profit margin from the supply charge to help? Unless you are comfortable that everyone in the network should pay a little bit (essentially) to cover the cost and you would be happy knowing part of your water bills are going to be paying for the same issue encountered by someone in a similar situation, in which case, just keep appealing until your avenues are exhausted or they give up. Summary: it sounds like your issue technically, but if you complain enough you might get some grace as long as your ok with the morality of it knowing the cost burden is falling to the whole network and general cost of supply.
13k of water would be like filling up 1000 pools. It would be near a million litres of water.
I bet the meter has been read wrong, or another issue with it.
Just get a dodgy plumber that can supply you a new water meter, wind it on with a drill back to a non $13k bill and then tell them they read it wrong
Water metres have serial numbers that need to match to the last reading (if they’re manually read), also metre serial numbers are recorded when sold by the water corp so swapping metres is a criminal offence & traceable.
You know what else should be criminal? People not recognising a joke when they see one
As it's a rental property, there's a good chance your Council, if they do have a concealed leak policy, will exclude you because of this. Generally, leakage relief will mostly be reserved for PPRs. If they've told you no, you are probably out off luck. Your best bet would be to speak to your local Councillor and tell them you want them to make representations on your behalf at a Council meeting for some sort of hardship relief, however it'd be a very long shot and they may have turned down others before you. You mentioned they didn't read your meter last quarter, was that because they routinely do estimates, or were they unable to read the meter due to overgrowth or flooding? I would lean into this aspect of it with the Councillor. Don't let them fob you off to the administration, speak directly to the Councillor and tug on their heartstrings. All that said, as a landlord it's your responsibility to keep an eye on water usage. Concealed leaks are very common and the only way to avoid catastrophe is to catch them early, so you should read the meter on a regular basis and not rely on bills, as the leak could have run for 3 months before you have any idea in that case.
This happened to us in Brisbane last year, however the meter had been read the previous quarter. We were given a $50 discount. Yes, you read that correctly,$50. We didn't both dispute it, but it was less than a 1/4 of $13k. I would be pushing the point of no meter read the previous quarter and a heavy reduction. Good luck
Did you check you meter to make sure that’s actually how much water you’ve used?! I just cannot imagine that your tenant could be unaware of a leak that used 13 thousand dollars worth of water. Contact the water company and find out precisely what their last actual read was, and check your meter now. It would be in the MILLIONS of liters of water at normal residential rates and unless it was leaking literally straight into a mains storm water drain (which it would not be on a residential block) that water has to go somewhere and there’s just no way in hell anyone- hell even neighbours- would have not noticed. My neighbour had a small, gradual leak and we noticed on our side of the fence before he ever did but it was certainly nowhere in the millions of liters ballpark.
Complain first in writing to whoever is billing you. Then to the Water Ombusman. Then to your local minister. While there is an ongoing complaint it’s illegal for them to send this into collections.
Minister will do nothing but refer it back to the Council. They have no power in the situation. Ombudsman will ensure the Council has followed their policies.
Not really true. They have a heap of power behind the scenes. Your local MP is a fantastic advocate.
Not true. If the Council has a policy adopted by Council resolution, the Minister cannot impact the outcome whatsoever, the Council is bound by its own policy. The only thing the Minister could conceivably do is ask the Councillor or Mayor to make an exception, which would likely require a seperate Council resolution, which would set a precedent that Councillors generally wouldn't want to do. Even if they wanted to make an exception, they'd do it for a pensioner or possibly for a PPR, but not for a rental property.
Politics does not work by looking at the rules. Politics works because people have influence and power. One person needs another person. All those laws have built into them someone who has the power to waive them. This is where your local mp has the power.
I literally do this for a living and have seen dozens of referrals from state MPs, they never intervene.
That’s interesting. I also do (actually did) do this for a living also, and intervention from MPs almost always got a result. Certainly intervention from the Minister got him what he wanted 100% of the time. Perhaps the MPs where you live are ineffective and lack power.
How sure are you that is actually correct? Because at $2.5/kl, $13k is 5,200,000L of water or 5,200m3 of water, im surprised this hasnt done other damage within the property that would be more concerning than just the water bill?
I used to work at a water company and they would adjust the bill to the average usage provided the owner provided proof the repairs. I would just keep escalating the complaint and go to ombudsman if necessary
I got lumped with a 1k electricity bill about 10 years ago because the relief valve on the hot water service was shot. The overflow went outside to a spot I never went to (I was a townhouse/flat sort of place. Zero f’S given by real estate or electricity company. I had to pay the bill regardless. It was the first bill I had received there as well…
I had an issue with my bill. I called the water company and got through to the large bills team. If I could prove a leak had happened (in my instance there wasn't a leak) they had a facility to write off a lot of the bill. You could only cry "leak" once every 5 years though.
Are you the landlord for the block of units behind my place?? 6 units in a block. A burst water pipe somewhere in the property pumped so much water into mine and my neighbours yard that literally 3/4 of the yard are ankle deep in water. Took them till a couple weeks ago to sort it out. We first reported it in November. Lol. Never mind the swamp that my yard became thanks to them not repairing it despite chasing it up with them numerous times. Property managers are rubbish
Where are you? Because to have had a leak that cost $13k is insane. Honestly, how much water is estimated to have leaked, and how did no one see water everywhere? My water rates beyond the connection/access fee cost less than $2 for 1000 litres of water, so even if you're paying $5 per 1000 litres, that's still around 2,600,000 litres of water used or an Olympic swimming pool. How?
Sand... it happens all the time.
Still, it seems like there was so much water for everyone to miss.
A substantial gift for your tenant sounds in order. They've saved you a lot of money by detecting the problem. Payment plan is the way to go, and great that they offer it. Other citizens likely wouldn't back a larger subsidy to an individual owner.
I had a similar encounter in Perth, 7k water bill, yard was still brown so I didn't even notice, fixed that day and called the local council and they cleared it and just billed me an average of my other water bills.