A Melton resident has been told he must pay a hefty water bill for a vacant block of land that has no water connected to it.
Peter Smilek said he was shocked last week to receive a
$326.30 bill for the vacant Melton South block he bought in July.
The bill has three separate charges – $89.16 for water service
availability, $202.23 for sewerage service and $34.91 for waterways.
Mr Smilek said he and his wife planned to build a house on the land and move in next year.
He said it was unfair he was being asked to pay for water charges when he was not living on the property.
“All I’ve got is a vacant block and [Western Water] say I’m going
to have to pay it whether I like it or not,” he said.
“What a rort. We’ve
got enough bills to contend with – we’re currently paying for water
where we live now.
“Why do you have to pay for something that you haven’t used?”
A Western Water spokesman said that under the Water Act, residents
were required to pay a service availability charge, even on vacant
land.
“If your property is not yet connected to our water, recycled
water and or/sewer services but is able to access our pipe network, the
property is assessed as a serviced property,” he said.
“Therefore
availability charges apply for each service that is available. If
charges did not apply to vacant land, the costs of having services
available to your vacant land would be borne by other customers. It is
fairer to spread the cost across our entire customer base.”
Mr Smilek said the bill also stated: “Next reading: December 2013.” He questioned how Western Water could read a meter that didn’t exist.
Western Water’s spokesman stated: “We have looked at our billing
on vacant properties and agree this is should be updated. We will be
changing the wording on all our vacant property accounts to say the next
,‘bill to be issued’, instead of the current language.”
Mr Smilek said he intended to explore all avenues before the bill was due on September 30.
