KCDC Water Meter Charges For Renters Could Be Illegal
> 8 June 2014
>
> "KCDC,s proposal of asking all landlords to recover costs from their tenants for ongoing water use may be so flawed
it is against the residential tenancies act", says Councillor Jackie Elliott.
>
> The advice of KCDC staff member Sean Mallon, in the front page of this weeks Kapiti Observer. was 'Council is
advising landlords to review tenancy agreements before charging kicks in on 1st
> July, the public are then refereed to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment's Tenancy Advisory Line
for further advice.
>
> However, one Kapiti resident has alerted me the advice he received from the MBIE was that KCDC's planned charging
may be illegal. Says Cr Elliott.
> "It is the opinion of the Ministry, that, asking a tenant to pay for water, when they have never been required to
in the past would met the definition of a prohibited transaction under section 137 of the act.
>
> Further advice from the ministry is that requiring a tenant to " waive their rights" ( by agreeing to pay for
water) shall be of no effect, under section 11.3 of the act. Says Cr Elliott,
>
> The resident also felt his only option was to charge his tenant well in excess of the proposed volumetric charges
to cover any future over use of water, or associated costs.
>
> It is completely unacceptable for Council to create this situation and offload any responsibility to figure it out
onto landlords and tenants. Says Cr Elliott."Increased costs on tenants with fixed incomes will cause unnecessary added
hardship to our community.
> On Friday, I requested the Mayor, who was voted in to build the dam, and the CEO to meet Councillors urgently to
discuss this and to delay commencing any charging until it's ironed out. I have yet to get a reply from either of them.
>
> There are a hundred unanswered questions at this stage and for Council staff to charge ahead with indecent haste
and abdicate their responsibilities is unacceptable. I remain against any volumetric charging for water as are a vast
majority of people in Kapiti.
>
ends