Continuing on with our look at calculating the settlement amount as part of the conveyancing process, we’ll now take a look at the water and sewerage charges and water usage charges for the Gold Coast City Council area.
On the Gold Coast it is the City of Gold Coast who is the water service provider, while Seqwater owns the bulk water supply, which includes the Hinze Dam and the desalination plant at Tugun. This means that the city buys the water from Seqwater and this price is reflected on your water bill, combined with the price set by the council for the delivery of water to the property.
Water and sewerages rates notices are issued on a quarterly basis on the Gold Coast, in January, April, July and October.
Currently, as of June 2015, the price charged for water access is $53.02 each quarter and the price charged for sewerage access is $181.28 each quarter. These are fixed charges for each property.
On top of this is the charge you pay for your water consumption, which is charged per kilolitre of water used at the property. There are two separate charges for each kilolitre of water used; a water consumption charge, which as of June 2015, is $1.09 per kilolitre and a state bulk water charge, which as of June 2015, is $2.71 per kilolitre.
The water consumption charge is the what Gold Coast City Council charges for the delivery of water to the property, while the state bulk water charge is the cost the Council pays to purchase the water from Seqwater, which it passes onto you.
Water and Sewerage Adjustments for Settlement:
When you buy or sell property the settlement amount will include an adjustment for these charges that will either be deducted or added to the amount due depending upon whether the latest water charges are paid or unpaid by the seller.
The water and sewerage access charges is calculated on a daily rate with the buyer only being responsible for the payment of the days remaining in the current billing period.
As water usage is charged in arrears, the seller will be responsible for a portion of the water use that the buyer will pay for on the next bill. To calculate the amount the seller is responsible for, your conveyancing solicitor will order a special water meter read prior to settlement. This water meter read will show the amount of water that has been used between the last billable read and the special read.
Then this amount of water is divided between the days between each read to calculate an average daily amount of water used. To arrive at the amount the seller must pay this average daily amount is multiplied by the number of days from the last billable read until the settlement date. This amount is then deducted from the settlement amount.
This is a quick summary of how water and sewerage charges are calculated for the settlement of properties on the Gold Coast, however the way these charges are calculated does vary with each council area in Queensland.