Hi all,
I'm new to the forums but see you have some bright sparks here who might be able to give me a hand with a query I have.
I've recently purchase a unit, in a block of 11 in Victoria. Everything is great except I've received a huge water bill for my share of this service (we have shared water meters). I'd like to get quotes and ultimately hope I can get the votes to have individual meters installed however am wondering whether this is something that can be achieved through an ordinary resolution (ie 50% vote) or will require a special resolution (ie 75%). I don't believe the total cost will be greater than twice the total fees being collected from unitholders so this requirement should be met. Not sure if a special resolution is still required though.Any assistance is greatly appreciated.
thanks,
Lachlan
I'm a little confused (that's not hard). Do you have one meter for the whole building or several shared meters? Water usage should be split according to your unit entitlement not just 1/11th of the property so that a 3 bedder will pay its share compared against a single bedder.
It is not just as simple as saying that you want to have separate metering, you will either need to install a sub-meter in each premises (where the water comes in, if it can be found) or have meters at the boundary and new pipes run to each unit, which will be quite costly if there is no access eg concrete slabs.
I would push for sub-metering if possible, however this will require someone reading all of the meters at a regular basis, to account for each unit's usage as well as calculating the balance as the common area water consumption which must then be divided between all of the owners.
Hi Scott,
thanks for the reply. We have two shared meters for all 11 units.
To give you a better idea of the layout, there are 11 units with 6 upstairs and 5 downstairs. I know at least one of these is a 3 bedder, but suspect as many as 2 or 3 are with the balance being 2 bedders.
I know there is some concern from the downstairs owners as each of them already have the gas meters for the property immediately above them in their rear courtyard and suspect individual water metering may require the same (assume this would be sub-metering as you describe it).
The bill is literally split 1/11th each and assumed this was based on the entitlement of each property being equal.
I guess in my (simple) mind I envisaged it all being as simple as getting the majority on board and lumping a number of meters out the front however it appears this may not be the case
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