Foreword: On the lips of every budding elected councillor in 2025 was the intention to address the fact that the way the water rates were charged for unmetered properties was unfair and needed addressing. At the same time, the awareness that there were several thousand water meters sitting in a garage since Mayor Sandra Goudie authorised their purchase in her mayoral reign came to light and residents want fairness and if there is unfairness then it needs to be fixed up and council needs to recompense in a fair way.
This following letter highlights and reminds us all that the calculation of water rates and water meters or lack of) issue are unresolved. This is a resident’s reply to a legal representative for TCDC . This resident is trying to get some justice in terms of water rates.
R= resident, L= legal view
R: It is frustrating to have you say, L: “To provide an explanation as to why Council has not installed a boundary/bulk meter for this complex, we have asked the Water Services manager to engage with you directly.”
R: Several other council staff have said the same thing over the last 18 months. I have yet to hear from the Water Services Manager.
Following the information you sent through, L: ”The process for setting rates is prescribed by the Local Government Act 2002 and the Local Government (Rating) Act 2002 and is not discretionary.”
R: I have reviewed the two acts, and of course they are not discretionary. However they also have nothing to do with the actual rates charges as set by the TCDC. The rates charges themselves, for the currently 9,500 people on non-metered water connections in the district, were set by the council to fulfil a requirement specified in the two Acts. The charges themselves were NOT set by the Government. Just prior to the last local body election, the TCDC team wrote in a letter to the editor of the Coromandel Informer on 16 September 2025, in response to the overwhelming complaints from the public regarding overcharging, “The way we set our (water) rates is complex and involves a significant process. The setting of our rates was legally reviewed prior to adoption on 24 June and adheres to all aspects set out under the Local Government (Rating) Act 2002. We don’t expect people to necessarily understand the intricacies of this process …” – from TCDC.
Where is the “complexity”, or “intricacy”, in setting a massive uniform charge for unmetered water by simply taking the infrastructure fixed cost and doubling it to cover the supplied water? How is this in ANY WAY a complex calculation?
“TCDC is well aware that your charge of 925.6 litres per day is, for any household of less than 5 people, an overcharge.”
The TCDC is well aware that your charge of 925.6 litres per day is, for any household housing less than 5 people, an overcharge. For a household of two people, with an average water consumption of 300 to 400 litres per day, TCDC is charging more than double the actual use. For someone with a weekend batch, who’s occupancy is maybe one weekend a month, it’s outright theft.
So once again, given that the TCDC is very aware that they are overcharging for an essential commodity, I am asking you as their legal representative for the legislation that allows the TCDC to KNOWINGLY overcharge rate-payers for their water, based on the current metered water charges. Because to me, and the bulk of ratepayers, these charges are extortionate, and I can see no legal way that TCDC can justify this. To simply say that a rate is set (apparently by just finding the nearest convenient number and doubling it) and that it was legally reviewed (no doubt by your own department) means nothing. In order to comply with the Local Government Act 2002 and the Local Government (Rating) Act 2002 you simply have to set a rate. That doesn’t justify setting it to an extortionate level.
I offer a simple solution:-
Take a representative cross section of the community who are on metered connections. Poll the sample to get data on occupancy rates, ranging from full time occupants with varying family sizes, down to holiday homes with occasional occupancy. Cross reference these with their metered water consumption to give you an average use for number of occupants and frequency of occupancy. You can then determine the occupancy of un-metered properties, and charge them based on the data accrued. In actual fact this data is already readily available, but I know the Council will want to gather their own information rather than work efficiently.
Please be aware that I will once again be bringing this matter to the public’s attention.
P.S. The following was also part of the legal defence argument. However when so many communities have had unbundling and have working water meters across this country. TCDC is describing this as difficult to manage.
◾️From TCDC: “Councils face a number of practical and legal challenges installing water meters on private property where there are multiple owners and occupiers. This would require agreement from all property owners and legal arrangements (such as easements), both of which add cost and complexity. There are also issues around maintenance – while the internal pipes remain privately owned, the meters would be Council assets. In practice, this could result in Council becoming responsible for maintaining or responding to issues within private pipework to ensure meters function properly, which would be costly and difficult to manage.”
