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Local Government (Water Services) Act 2025

Provision of water services: operational matters - Charges for water services

88: Serviceability charge for property not connected to network

You could also call this:

"Paying for being near a water network, even if you're not connected"

Illustration for Local Government (Water Services) Act 2025

If you own a property that is close to a water or wastewater network, you might have to pay a serviceability charge. This charge applies if your property is within 100 metres of a network that has enough capacity to service it, but it is not currently connected. You will not have to pay this charge if your property is non-rateable land, as specified in Part 1 of Schedule 1 of the Local Government (Rating) Act 2002. The water organisation in charge of the network can decide how much you have to pay for the serviceability charge.

If the water organisation decides to charge you, they can set the amount they think is fair. However, if half of your property is non-rateable land, as specified in Part 2 of Schedule 1 of the Local Government (Rating) Act 2002, they can only charge you half of what they would normally charge. This means you will pay less if a big part of your property does not have to pay rates.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS1004372.

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Part 3Provision of water services: operational matters
Charges for water services

88Serviceability charge for property not connected to network

  1. This section applies to property that—

  2. is within 100 metres of one of the following networks that has sufficient capacity to service the property:
    1. a water supply network:
      1. a wastewater network; and
      2. is not, but can be, connected to that network; and
        1. is not non-rateable land specified in Part 1 of Schedule 1 of the Local Government (Rating) Act 2002.

          1. The relevant water organisation for a property that is not connected to its network may set serviceability charges in relation to the property.

          2. However, if the property is 50% non-rateable land specified in Part 2 of Schedule 1 of the Local Government (Rating) Act 2002, the water organisation may only set a serviceability charge that is 50% of the charge that would otherwise be payable.