S A Water Rips off Customers

  This is my open letter to Mr. David Spiers about S A Water continuing to rip of the residents of South Australia and the Water act of 2012 allows them to do so.  This water act is outdated and therefore needs reforms.

P A Vinod Kumar

21 a Nambour Crescent,

West Lakes Shore 5020

Email:vinodkumar@msn.com

Tel: 0403958453

 

Dear Mr. Spiers

I am writing to you as the Minister for water in South, Australia because of my recent experience with S A Water. This experience has convinced me that the South Australian Water Act of 2012 is outdated and is not fit for purpose in a modern society.

To Summarise:

 I had bought a property 28 a Newcolmbe Avenue, in West Lakes Shore for the purpose of building a new home.    The property that was 28 Newcolmbe Avenue was demolished and the plot like so many others in Adelaide was divided into 28 & 28 A Newcolmbe in September 2018.   I purchased 28 A Newcolmbe Avenue in August 2020. This property had neither water nor sewage connection yet I was invoiced for these services.  When I queried this with S A Water they initially claimed that the property was connected to a meter.   When I produced evidence to the contrary, they claimed that they had the authorisation to invoice as long as their service abutted the property and referred me to the S A water Act of 2012.

I challenged the legality of this, how could anybody be charged for a service that is not providing to them.  Would you Sir pay for my service just because it is available to you?  S A Water then responded as follows “Pursuant to the Water Industry Regulations 2012 (regulations 38) and Government Gazette 6 June 2013, SA Water may levy an availability charge despite the fact that the land is not connected to SA Water’s infrastructure. All charges for sewerage services and the availability charge for water applying to some commercial properties are based on the property valuation of the land. Property values are set annually by the Valuer-General for the next financial year.” 

 

 

When we could not agree that this applied to residential properties the dispute was then taken to the Energy and Water Ombudsman.  Finally S A Water’s customer advocate came with the following grounds on which they (S A Water) can charge even though there is no connection.

The evidence they produced was:

You can find the information relating to SA Water’s ability to charge supply charges in Section 115(2)(c) of the Water Industry Act 2012. Section 115 is located on page 92 of the Act.

 Regulation 38 of the Water Industry Regulations 2012 is on page 14.

 Clarification of Regulation 38 of the Water Industry Regulations 2012 can be located on page 2490 of the 6 June 2013 Government Gazette.

I did not agree with this and requested the Ombudsman for and Opinion.  

I am writing about your complaint with SA Water for your water supply at 28A Newcolmbe Aveune, West Lakes Shore SA 5020.

We received your complaint on 15 April 2021 and I have worked with you and SA Water to resolve the complaint.

The outcome        

SA Water has:

·     billed you for water supply and sewage access after you took ownership of a subdivided block at the above address in July 2020

·     advised that the water services were connected to your property prior to your purchase of the property.

 

I request you sir to justify the legislation which permits a company to invoice and individual just because their service is available.  If you unable to justify this don’t you think that the Water Act of 2012 should be amended.

 

Secondly and more importantly, prior to the installation of water meters to most homes charging for water and sewage service based on the rateable value of the property was justified.  But now water meters are installed in every property yet sewage is still charged in S A by the antiquated method based on the rateable value of the property.. The Sewage produced has no relevance to the property’s value.  There is a correlation of the water consumption to the sewage produced.  Although this is not perfect there is a better correlation that the rateable value of the property.

 

This practise is not alien to Australia for example Yarra Valley Water in Melbourne

• Sewage disposal
  All the water that goes down the kitchen, laundry and bathroom sinks, and the toilet is called sewage. It is difficult and expensive to have a meter installed in each household to record the volume of sewage discharged. Instead, we estimate the volume based on the amount of water supplied to your property (water usage) minus a percentage of water that we estimate is used outside your house..

 

Finally Sir I request that the monopoly of S A water be ended so that the citizens of S A would be better served by competition.

 

  Regards

 Yours sincerely

 Vinod Kumar