Payment responsibilities
Depending on whether you’re a property owner or tenant, the responsibility for paying charges varies.
Your Yarra Valley Water bill includes:
- Water and sewerage system charges
- Usage charges
- Quarterly waterways and drainage charge
- Quarterly parks charge.
Home owner and occupier
As the owner occupier you are responsible for paying:
- Water and sewerage system charges
- Usage charges
- Quarterly waterways and drainage charge
- Quarterly parks charge.
Maintaining the water supply and sewerage service on the owner’s side of the meter, or up to the connection with our sewer branch (usually inside the property boundary), is the property owner’s responsibility.
Household tenant
As the tenant, you are responsible for paying:
- Usage charges
As a tenant you only pay for what you use, giving you more control over your account.
Landlord
As the landlord, you are responsible for paying:
- Water and sewerage system charges
- Waterways and drainage charge
- Parks charge.
The cost of maintaining the water supply system and the sewerage service on your side of the meter or up to the connection with our sewer branch (usually inside the property boundary) is your responsibility.
If there is a common meter (for example in a group of flats) you are responsible for a portion of the usage charges as well as the service charges. These charges cannot be passed onto the tenant.
Commercial property owner
As the owner of a commercial property you are responsible for paying:
- Water and sewerage system charges
- Water usage
- Sewage disposal
- Waterways and drainage charge
- Parks charge.
Legally, we can’t charge commercial tenants for any charges except trade waste.
Commercial property owners can recover costs from tenants. Owners need to have an agreement with tenants for paying these charges. Yarra Valley Water is not responsible for any agreement commercial property owners enter into with tenants about recovering these costs. If you want further information about who is responsible for the various water charges, it is best to seek legal advice.
Owners of commercial properties can request that bills be sent directly to a tenant by setting the tenant up as an authorised representative. If you wish to do this, please contact us on 1300 304 688. However, you need to be aware that if a Yarra Valley Water bill remains outstanding, the owner is responsible for making sure it's paid.