Invoiced and billed for a water connection that does not exist

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Hi,

I have received invoices for a water non existent ‘connection’ on my rural block of land, and I get reminders that I must ensure access to the non existent ‘water meter’ for the 3 monthly readings.

I am starting to wonder why I have been paying these bills when I know that under the Trade Practices Act that it s illegal to charge for a non existent item on an invoice.

In the small rural town where my block of land is, they have laid water pipes outside the properties, but I have not built on my property as yet, as I am still saving.

Asked someone who also owns a rural block of land if they were paying for a non existent ‘connection’ on their property. They said they no longer pay because they had complained for 5 years to the government body running the business that the charge was illegal, and then the bills just stopped.

Has anyone else had this problem?

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Unfortunately the charges aren’t illegal. TasWater explains why they impose charges for vacant blocks which are located in TasWater serviced land area (click on the ‘Unconnected properties’ dropdown):

https://www.taswater.com.au/accounts-and-billing/fees-and-charges/vacant-land-charges-explained

We have had our own issues with how TasWater charges for wastewater, so much so that we have made submissions to the regulator. Fortunately the regulator has changed its position to make waste water charging fairer in the future (charging based on individual property discharge rather than a shoe fits all metric irrespective of discharge rates).

Unfortunately TasWater (and most water utilities around Australia) are regulated monopolies, which means they can often have charging methods which may not be seen as acceptable in other industries. The regulator approves the charges they impose on consumers, which means it is challenging to fight what one thinks is an unfair charge.

It might be worth keeping out for the next charges review and getting those similar to yourself to lodge submissions, to see if the regulator is willing to support a change the status quo. However, a review as only recently been completed and the next review isn’t scheduled for a few years: