Question: Our council chairperson installed their own water meter with the strata manager’s approval and now wants a lower levy. How should the other owners handle this?
In a complex of 12 townhouses, there are no common gardens and no common property water consumption. One owner installed their own water meter without permission from the council, but unbeknownst to anybody, had requested and been granted that permission by the strata manager. The owner is the chairperson of the council of owners. Now they’ve asked for a 1/12th levy reduction, since they no longer use common water. The strata manager resigned, allegedly because of complications from the owner’s actions. The other owners are unsure how to proceed. What would you suggest we do?
Answer: The owner is entitled to a reduction where they are billed directly for their own metered water use, but must still contribute to any genuine common water expense.
Based on the information you have provided, we believe the position is considerably more straightforward than may presently be assumed.
If there is one main Water Corporation meter in the name of the strata company (SC), the SC remains responsible for payment of the water consumption charged by Water Corporation through that meter.
We assume that the SC has engaged a third-party provider to read the privately owned sub-meters servicing the individual lots and to apportion the relevant consumption charges between those owners.
The position changes somewhat where an individual owner has had their private sub-meter replaced with, or converted to, a Water Corporation meter and Water Corporation now reads that meter and bills that owner directly.
In that situation, the consumption recorded by the individual Water Corporation meter should be accounted for by Water Corporation when determining the consumption charged through the SC’s main meter. In other words, the SC should also not be charged for that same individual lot consumption and then seek to recover it again from the owner.
We therefore suggest that the SC examines its most recent Water Corporation invoice to confirm that this is in fact occurring.
If it is, then the owner who now has the Water Corporation meter should not be included in the apportionment of the water consumption subsequently recovered from owners through the private sub-metering system, because Water Corporation is separately billing that owner for their individual consumption.
However, that does not necessarily mean that the owner can simply be excluded from every water-related expense of the SC.
If there is any genuine common property or otherwise unallocated water consumption for which the SC is responsible, that remains a SC expense and needs to be dealt with in the same manner as other proper SC expenditure. An owner having an individual Water Corporation meter does not, by itself, remove that owner’s obligations as a member of the SC to contribute to legitimate common expenses.
In your particular circumstances, you advised that there are no common gardens and apparently no identifiable common property water consumption. If that is correct, there may be little or no common water consumption to allocate. Nevertheless, this should be verified against the Water Corporation invoices and the meter readings rather than assumed.
Other owners wishing to install Water Corporation meters
In relation to the other owners who now wish to do the same, we do not believe that the fact one owner has converted to a Water Corporation meter means that every other owner must also convert.
In a survey-strata scheme, we understand that an individual owner can generally arrange for a Water Corporation meter servicing their lot at their own cost, provided the installation complies with Water Corporation’s requirements and does not involve unauthorised alterations to infrastructure belonging to another owner or the SC.
Similarly, in a conventional strata scheme, we believe it would generally be possible for an owner to replace or convert a privately owned sub-meter to a Water Corporation meter at their own expense, subject again to Water Corporation’s technical requirements and any necessary access to or work involving common property or common infrastructure.
We do not believe that the mere change from a private sub-meter to a Water Corporation meter would, of itself, necessarily require an amendment to the scheme by-laws or a decision of all owners at an AGM or EGM. The position could be different if the proposed installation requires significant alteration to common property or common infrastructure, in which case the nature of those works would need to be considered separately.
Accordingly, we also do not see a basis at present upon which owners who wish to retain their existing private sub-meters could simply be compelled to pay for conversion to Water Corporation meters. There is no apparent need for an “all or nothing” approach. The two arrangements should be able to operate concurrently, provided billing is administered correctly.
The important practical issue is that the SC and whoever undertakes the private sub-meter readings must maintain an accurate record identifying:
- which lots have private sub-meters and therefore need their consumption read and charged through the SC’s billing system; and
- which lots have Water Corporation meters and are billed directly by Water Corporation and must therefore be excluded from the private sub-meter consumption calculations.
Provided this distinction is properly maintained, we see no reason why some owners could not have individual Water Corporation meters while other owners continue with the existing private sub-metering arrangement.
We would therefore suggest that the SC firstly examines the latest Water Corporation invoice to confirm exactly how the separately metered lot’s consumption is being treated. It would then be worthwhile speaking with the third-party meter-reading provider to ensure that its records have been updated and that the Water Corporation-metered lot is no longer included when the privately metered consumption is apportioned.
This should also assist in resolving the present disagreement, as the question should ultimately be determined by what consumption Water Corporation is actually charging to the SC’s main account and what consumption is being billed directly to the individually metered owner, rather than simply by whether that owner considers that they use common property water.
Please be advised that the above is not being constituted legal advice and we recommend separate legal advice to determine the circumstances.
This post appears in the October 2026 edition of The WA Strata Magazine.
Marietta Metzger
magixstrata
E: marietta@magixstrata.com.au
P: 08 6559 7498
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