Council will provide an adjustment under this Policy where the following conditions are met:

• An application for a determination under this Policy will not be accepted where the water & sewerage account is in arrears unless the owner has previously entered into an arrangement to pay those arrears, and
• Where a water & sewerage account is not in arrears, the access charges on the affected notice(s) should be paid by the due date of the notice(s), as any adjustment will only be made in respect of the water usage charges, and
• An application for an adjustment under this Policy must be received by the due date of the affected water and sewerage notice(s), and
• The applicant must an owner of the property, or their authorised agent, and
• Only one application for assistance will be allowed every five (5) years of ownership (whether sole or part); and an entitlement to this assistance cannot be accrued. For example, if a property was purchased by a ratepayer in 2015 and an application for assistance approved in 2024, a new application cannot be made by the ratepayer until 2029, and
• A claim for adjustment under this Policy must be made in writing and include a copy of the invoice for any repairs undertaken by a licensed plumber, and
• The Council must be satisfied that the leak would not have been noticed in day-to-day activities either because it was concealed, undetectable or not easily accessed, and
• The Council must be satisfied that any repairs have been undertaken in a timely manner, and
• Before an adjustment is processed to a water & sewerage account, the owner is required to sign and return a deed of release to Council agreeing to the claim;
  
  • Who has repaired the leak; and
  • The property address where the work was carried out; and
  • The date, nature and location (at the property) of the repairs; and
  • A statement that the defect was not readily visible or apparent.

Where an extreme weather event (like flooding) masks the presence of a leak or delays the repair of a leak, Council may choose to:

• provide an adjustment over more than one (1) billing period provided they are consecutive
  billing periods, and
• accept an application for a water determination outside of the deadline required by this Policy.

An extreme weather event is one that is declared as a natural disaster by the NSW State Government (Natural disaster declarations | NSW Government).

An extreme weather event counts as a claim within a 5-year period.

The maximum adjustment provided will be equivalent to:

• 50% of the difference between the water usage charge on the affected notice and an estimate of the consumption for that period based on the average of the usage of the four (4) billing periods immediately preceding the affected notice, and
  
• 100% of the sewerage charges associated with the increase in water usage calculated in step 1 above.
  

Where current ownership of the property is less than two (2) consecutive billing periods, Council may choose to obtain two (2) additional readings over consecutive months to determine the average consumption to be used when calculating the adjustment.

Where the leak appears to affect more than one billing period, Council may choose to replace the additionally affected billing period in the calculation with the usage from another billing period.

Your personal information contained in your submission is collected by Council for the purpose of corresponding with you about your submission. Your submission, including only your name and locale, will be contained in the Council meeting business paper and made publicly available on Council's website. If you make an anonymous submission, Council will be unable to contact you further and only a summary of the points made in your submission may be provided.