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Local Government (Water Services) Act 2025

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

94: Liability for water services charges

You could also call this:

"Who has to pay for water services for a property"

Illustration for Local Government (Water Services) Act 2025

You are liable to pay water services charges for a property if you are the owner. You are also liable if you are the lessee and your lease is registered under section 91 of the Land Transfer Act 2017 and is for 10 years or more. Your lease must also say you are responsible for the rates.

You can be liable if you were named as the occupier in the district valuation roll before 30 April 2003. This is under the Rating Powers Act 1988. Your lease or licence with the owner must have been entered into before 8 August 2001 and still be in force.

If you are a lessee, you include anyone you transfer or assign your interest to. A property is any land in a water organisation's service area, but it does not include Māori land. The district valuation roll is defined in section 5 of the Local Government (Rating) Act 2002.

You can prove you are liable by showing you are named in the rating information database and district valuation roll. If your lease is registered, the owner can provide a certified copy of the record of title. If not, the owner can provide a statutory declaration to the local authority. A lease is still in force if you have renewed it on the same terms.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS1004387.

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95: Water services charges for separately used or inhabited parts of property, or

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

94Liability for water services charges

  1. The following persons are liable to pay water services charges (other than trade waste charges) for the water services that a water organisation provides in respect of a property:

  2. the owner of the property; or
    1. the lessee of the property if the lease—
      1. is registered after 30 April 2003 under section 91 of the Land Transfer Act 2017; and
        1. is for a term (including renewals) of 10 years or more; and
          1. provides that the lessee must be entered in the rating information database and the district valuation roll as the ratepayer in respect of the property; or
          2. the lessee or licensee of the property if—
            1. the name of the lessee or licensee was, immediately before 30 April 2003, entered in the district valuation roll as the occupier of a separately rateable property under the Rating Powers Act 1988 that substantially corresponds with the rating unit entered in the rating information database; and
              1. the lease or licence with the owner—
                1. was entered into before 8 August 2001; and
                  1. remains in force; and
                    1. either precludes the renegotiation of rent or any other payments that would allow the owner to be reimbursed if the owner were directly liable to pay the charges due on the property or is a lease registered under section 91 of the Land Transfer Act 2017.

                  2. Subsection (1)(a) and (b) is subject to subsection (1)(c).

                  3. For the purposes of subsection (1)(c), it is sufficient evidence, unless the contrary is proved, that the person referred to is named in the rating information database and the district valuation roll if,—

                  4. in the case of a lease registered under section 91 of the Land Transfer Act 2017, the owner has provided a certified copy of the record of title in relation to the unit that shows that the lease has been registered; or
                    1. in any other case, the owner has provided a statutory declaration to the relevant local authority that subsection (1)(c)(ii) applies.

                      1. For the purposes of subsection (1)(c)(ii)(B), a lease must be treated as remaining in force if the lessee has exercised a right to renew the lease on the same terms and conditions.

                      2. In this section,—

                        district valuation roll has the meaning set out in section 5 of the Local Government (Rating) Act 2002

                          lessee includes a person to whom the lessee transfers or assigns the lessee’s interest in the lease

                            property, in relation to a water organisation, means a property that is in the water organisation’s service area, but excludes Māori land.