Managing your rental property

Who’s responsible for what in a rental can be a source of confusion when renting out a property.

Does the property owner or tenant get the water bill? Who pays for what? What if the property has a shared meter?

If you’re renting out your property, here’s a rundown of your responsibilities to ensure a smooth landlord-tenant relationship.

Do you have a new tenant?

You can request a meter reading before a new tenant moves in or out. This ensures the tenant isn’t charged for water they haven’t used. Please note charges apply for meter readings.

Who pays for what?

Your water account is made up of service charges and water use charges. You get a bill from us every 2 months, which includes these charges. When renting a property, you can choose to receive these as a combined bill or send a separate water use bill to your tenant.

Property owners are responsible for paying service charges, and tenants are generally responsible for paying for their water use. Depending on your rental agreement, you can pass on the water use charges to your tenant or opt for your tenant to receive the water use bill from us.

If you want your tenant to receive the water use bills, they'll pay for their water use directly to us. Please note you’ll still receive the service charges bill and be liable for any outstanding amounts. Learn more about overdue bills.

If you haven’t chosen for your tenant to receive the water use bill, we’ll send you both the water use and service charges.

Set up tenant billing

If you want your tenant to receive their water use bill, you can set this up in one of two ways:

• Complete the change my details form
• Online account – log in to your account and select ‘Update property details’ to opt in for tenant billing.

What if your property has a shared water meter?

This is how your bill and charges work if you share a meter with other properties.

Service charges

You’ll receive the service charges bill directly from us.

Water use charges

We bill the strata manager for the total amount of water used based on the meter reading supplying the group of properties. The strata manager then distributes the total between the individual owners.

If your rental agreement is that the tenant pays for the water use, you can then pass on the water use charges to the tenant.

Learn more about how we charge properties with shared meters.

Can the tenant request a bill extension?

If your tenant receives the water use bill from us, they can apply for a bill extension. If you receive the water use bill, then only you can apply to extend a bill due date on their behalf.

What happens when a bill is overdue?

We're legislatively required to send all payment reminders and overdue bills to you, even if the tenant receives the water use bill. When this happens, you'll need to speak to the tenant to resolve any overdue charges.

If you use a property manager, you will still get the overdue notice because you are legislatively responsible for all overdue charges. Please speak to your managing agent to follow up on the charges with the tenant.

We have information to help your tenant understand how billing works, please visit tenant billing.

What about leaks?

Generally, the tenant is only responsible for the water they’ve used, this doesn’t include leaks. The cost of leaks and repairs lies with you unless outlined in your rental agreement.

Adding a property to your online account

You can easily manage all your rental properties in your online account. Here’s how to add a property to your account.

Don’t have an online account? Register now.