Question: Who is responsible for maintaining sub water meters located on common property? Does it come down to who owns the meter?
We’re trying to find out who is responsible for maintaining sub water meters on common property, which form part of the water network at a strata property in Victoria.
Answer: Responsibility for maintaining a sub water meter depends on who owns it and whether it serves one lot exclusively.
Given this question is detailed as “part of the water network” and not a “hot water network” or “hot water meter,” we will consider it a water meter on the mains supply to a lot, unrelated to a hot water meter from a communal hot water system, and that the meter covers supply to a single lot rather than one meter to multiple lots.
The easiest and quickest solution would be to contact your owners corporation manager, or in the event of no professional manager, the committee or chairperson. Reference should also be made to the party issuing invoices, the billing provider or utility supplier, who should be able to answer the question. If the query of maintenance responsibility for the water sub meter remains unsatisfied, there are a couple of questions to be answered to determine responsibility.
Responsibility for maintenance of the meter turns principally on:
- who owns the meter;
- whether the service serves one lot exclusively or multiple lots/common property;
- and what the plan of subdivision/deed/service agreement says.
The physical location of meter/s on common property alone does not determine who is responsible for its maintenance. It is common for lot meters to be in common property service cupboards or externally located in common property areas. Typically, the owners corporation maintains the main line serving all lots from the street or supply to the individual meters. In contrast, the individual lot owner maintains the branch line serving that lot exclusively from the lot side of the meter, even where that branch line passes through common property. Typically, the branch line is from the individual lot meter back to the lot. Typically, the water authority manages the supply up to the point where it enters the owners corporation property from the street or public property.
Water authority installed individual meters or “check meters” are usually installed and owned by the local water authority, who retain ownership of the meter and maintain the meter itself.
The owners corporation or the embedded network operator typically owns private sub-meters. In these cases, the ownership/service agreement will define maintenance responsibilities, and the owners corporation should have a copy, or the utility supplier should be able to provide one. The utility supplier should easily be able to answer this question if contacted directly.
If the lot privately installed and owns the meter for their own purposes and it forms an exclusive service to their lot, even if located on common property, there is a strong argument for the lot owner to be responsible for the maintenance under section 129(b) of the Owners Corporations Act 2006 (the Act), whereby a lot owner must maintain any service that serves that lot exclusively.
Subject to the meter not being owned by a water authority, private utility supplier or embedded network operator, then there is a stronger argument that the owners corporation owns and is responsible for the meter under section 46 and section 47 of the Act, whereby an owners corporation must repair and maintain services for the benefit of more than one lot and common property. Even in the unlikely event the meter is servicing multiple lots and so forms part of a shared service. However, if the meter services only a section of lots, not all lots, the owners corporation may consider applying the benefit principle to any associated costs, whereby the lots that benefit pay the costs.
Yarra Valley Water, Barwon Water & South East Water expressly recognise check meters for unit developments. Where there are multiple units, there may be a main meter plus individual check meters. The check meters provide measurements for billing individual lots. Excess main meter consumption would relate to common-area water usage or leaks and will be payable by the owners corporation. Their website states that the water authority owns and is responsible for the water meter and stop tap, while plumbing after the meter is generally the property owner’s responsibility.
This post appears in the September 2026 edition of The VIC Strata Magazine.
Hedley Gaudin
Australian Owners Corporation Management (AOCM)
E: hedley.gaudin@aocm.com.au
P: 03 9863 9100
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