27 February 2017

Media: Rodney Times / Stuff.co.nz

Topic: Water connection costs

Inquiry

I'm contacting all the District/amalgamated councils in NZ for a story I am working on comparing how much it costs to hook into the town water supply.

Looking at how much it costs to connect to the town water supply on your run of the mill residential street with the water pipes running along the street right outside.

For example, hypothetically if I was on tank water on Otonga Rd and wanted to connect up to the town supply, or building a new home and wanting to connect, how much would it cost?

Could I please also get a breakdown of the costs, ie labour, meter, pipes etc?

Response

Currently the fee paid to Council when applying for a new water connection for a standard residential dwelling is $80 + GST

Council does not charge for the physical installation of connections. The customer/person who is connecting organises and pays for this. Contractors must be Council-approved contractors.

Council's role is to assess the application and specify conditions such as size, whether a meter or flow restrictor is required and what type of backflow prevention is required.

The $80 application fee covers administration costs (processing applications, assessing the requirements, corresponding with the customer, receiving and checking contractor and connection information post-installation, entering the information into council's plan records, billing and rating , auditing of contractor/job quality and Health and Safety performance).

Here is the link to our webpage that covers water connection information including the approved contractors list.

Further information provided from Rotorua Contracting -

- Flat fee to connect to water main (on same side of the road) is $735 ex GST

- Flat fee to connect to water main (opposite side of the road) is $930 ex GST

The breakdown within that fee would vary depending on the requirements that were described previously.