September 19, 2012
South Burnett ratepayers may soon need to check their water meters almost as often as they check their mailboxes if the Council decides to adopt a new policy on excess water usage.
The formation of a new policy was flagged at today’s Council meeting by Mayor Wayne Kratzmann as the Council dealt with several applications for reductions in water consumption charges from residents.
All the applicants had received an unpleasant surprise when their latest rates notice arrived and were seeking reductions of anywhere between $280 and, in one case, almost $1950 off their water charges.
Cr Kratzmann said that under the Council’s existing policy, the only time a request for a reduction in water usage charges was granted was when a water leak occurred “out of sight”, for example in underground pipes, and couldn’t be immediately detected.
Recently a number of applications had come before the Council where he felt it was morally wrong to deny the request but Council had done so because the current policy forced them to do it.
Last month, for example, Council heard that one Nanango landlord was caught out when a toilet in his rental property began leaking while the tenant was away on holiday.
The tenant wasn’t able to discover the leak until he returned from holidays, and the leak was repaired as soon as it was found, but the landlord was billed for the excess water that was used in the interval.
And this month an application from a Kingaroy property owner whose water appears to have been stolen by someone while he was away on holiday was also turned down.
The Mayor said that in his opinion the only way to introduce fairness into the appeal process was to put the onus on residents to check their water meters regularly.
If that occurred, he said, then the only avenue of appeal against excess water usage charges would be if a property’s water meter was found to be defective, which would mean Council officers could deal with most requests for reductions in charges themselves.
Cr Barry Green said that in his experience in local government, he knew of only two instances where a defective water meter kept the existence of a leak secret. He agreed that if property owners checked their water meters on a regular basis the incidence of undetected water leaks would probably drop.
Crr Kratzmann reminded Councillors that they had voted for the current policy – which has been in place since 2008 – but suggested that if they were as dissatisfied with some of the outcomes as he was, then it might be a good idea to develop a new approach.
“Most people check their mailbox daily or at least weekly,” he said, “and all properties have water meters.
“But if we do this, we’ll need to educate residents to check their water meter regularly, too.”
