Your rental agreement should cover responsibility for bills such as, if any:

• bills are covered in the rent
• bills are managed by the landlord
• services and bills need to be organised by the tenant directly with service provider
• permission is required to connect services
• bills need to be split and how that will be calculated.

Council rates

Tenants are not liable to pay council rates if the agreement was:

• made after 1 July 2013
• was renewed or extended after 1 July 2013.

Utilities

Utilities include power, water and gas. The rental agreement should cover:

• what utilities are supplied
• who is responsible for paying for the usage
• how ongoing charges will be calculated, including sharing the bill and
• what the tenant(s) are responsible for when they move out.

The landlord can decide to:

• have bills sent directly to the tenant(s) by the service provider or strata manager; or
• provide written notice to the tenant of the meter readings and charges themselves.

Notice to tenant of utilities charges

The written notice must be sent to the tenant within 30 days of receiving the bill. If not sent in time, the tenant does not have to pay it.

The notice must include:

• the total charge for the tenant’s consumption of the utility; and
• metered consumption: the reading and the charge per metered unit
• non-metered consumption: the calculation as per the rental agreement; and
• the amount of GST payable for the tenant’s part of the service.

Water 

Water use is paid by the tenant.

Water rates are paid by the landlord. The landlord is also responsible for maintaining water storage facilities and septic tanks.

The landlord should organise a meter reading from the Water Corporation at the start and end of tenancy. This can be recorded in the property condition report or Part C of the rental agreement.

Electricity and gas 

The Economic Regulation Authority (ERA) produce consumer guides to help you to understand more about electricity, gas and water services.  The ERA also provide information on bill concessions and assistance. 

Separate meters

The tenant can only be charged for their use of the electricity and gas. The landlord is responsible for the maintenance of any mains supply.

Usually the tenant is billed directly by the electricity and gas providers.

Shared meters 

If the home shares a meter, the landlord must detail in the agreement how charges will be calculated.

No mains gas 

The rental agreement needs to state who is responsible for the gas supply if a mains connection is not available.

Landlord supplies gas bottles

The landlord can pass the charges on to the tenant. The agreement needs to detail the supply arranged and how the costs are calculated.

Tenant supplies gas bottles

The tenant can organise to have it delivered and connected. The tenant will need to pay all the charges.

Television, phone and internet 

The tenant should ask if these services are available when they are looking for a home to rent.

The landlord is responsible for the line connection to the home. The tenant is responsible for the general connection to use the line.

The tenant must pay for their usage costs unless the rental agreement states otherwise.

No antenna, coaxial cables or sockets installed

Before the agreement is signed, the tenant should be told if the home does not have TV antenna, coaxial cables, phone or internet connections.

The tenant will have to ask the landlord’s permission to install the services. Phone and internet installations are considered minor modifications and TV antenna installation is a major modification. Read more about asking permission on making changes to the rental home. 

Antennas, coaxial cables and sockets installed 

A tenant can assume they can connect to the television, phone and internet services if there are existing sockets in the home. The tenant can organise the connection to these services without asking permission.

When a tenant moves out 

Bills sent directly to tenant 

If a tenant is responsible for their own bills, they must let the service providers know when they move out of a rental property.

Bills managed by landlord 

If a landlord manages the bills, they must provide tenants with a final written notice as soon as practical. Such as bills received within 30 days before or after the agreement end date.

Unoccupied home between tenancies 

When the tenant has moved out and paid for the rest of their usage costs, the landlord handles any bills received before a new lease begins.