Water in Strata/Community Titled properties
I had a client make contact over the weekend querying water invoicing as for his Community Corporation the water is invoiced in full to the corporation for payment while his sister owns a similar style property where the owners pay water directly to SA Water.
It is standard in Strata Title properties that the water for all units comes through one meter which is owned by SA Water and the bills are sent to the corporation for payment. There are a few properties that I’ve come across with two meters but these are normally where there are units on each side of the property and a water meter is at the front of each block of units.
The options open to the Strata Corporation are to select one of:
Pay the water to SA Water in full each quarter (this is the default)
Complete the SA Water paperwork to divide the bill equally or by entitlement and have the invoices sent to owners directly for payment by SA Water. This can be found on the SA Water website here
Install individual meters and have a company such as Strata Water Solutions attend to carry out the individual meter readings. Please see more on Strata Water Solutions here
For Community Titled properties the options vary based on whether the developer has installed individual meters for the property and whether these are SA Water meters or not; so the following options apply:
The property may have one meter in which case the options open to the Strata Corporation apply
The property may have individual meters installed. It is important in this case to determine if these are SA Water or privately owned meters.
If the meters are SA Water – then the usage will be billed by SA Water to the individual
If the meters are individual – then the options for the Strata Corporation apply
It is up to the corporation through a meeting to set the process for payment of water invoicing and is best discussed at the first meeting for a new corporation to avoid any confusion down the track.
We hope that this helps but if you have any queries concerning water at your property feel free to call us on 8350 5699.
