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This has understandably caused some confusion for landlords about what they need to do, how water charges will work, and whether any costs can be passed on to tenants.

This is particularly confusing for out-of-town landlords who may not have seen the reminders and advertising around Lower Hutt and Upper Hutt. Many property owners outside the region are still unclear about exactly how the move to Tiaki Wai will affect their rental properties.

The first thing to understand is that this is technically a like-for-like swap.

From 1 July 2026, water services charges will be removed from existing Hutt City Council and Upper Hutt City Council rates bills and instead billed separately by Tiaki Wai.

What Hutt Valley landlords need to know about Tiaki Wai

To help with this, here are some answers to the main questions:

Will I be paying the same amount as before?

At this stage, neither councils nor Tiaki Wai are giving a clear answer on whether overall costs will stay the same.

While water charges will be removed from council rates bills, councils will still be setting rates for the new financial year — and those rates are likely to increase independently.

In reality, many landlords should budget for costs to rise over time, although we will not know exactly what Tiaki Wai charges look like until bills start arriving from 1 July 2026.

Can landlords pass water charges on to tenants?

At the moment, the answer is no.

To charge tenants for water consumption, a property must generally have a way to measure individual usage.

None of the rental properties we currently manage in the Hutt Valley have water meters installed, and as far as we are aware, residential metering is not yet in place across Lower Hutt or Upper Hutt.

Without water metering, landlords cannot pass water usage charges on to tenants.

Are water meters coming to the Hutt Valley?

Probably - eventually.

Tiaki Wai has indicated that residential water meters are part of the long-term plan. However, this would be a major infrastructure project costing hundreds of millions of dollars and likely rolled out over many years.

That means the timing, funding, and final scope of water metering in the Hutt Valley is still uncertain.

What should landlords do to prepare?

For now, there is not much landlords need to do immediately.

As part of a national property management network, we already have systems and processes in place to manage tenant water billing where metering exists and charges can legally be passed on.

One practical step we will be making locally is updating tenancy agreements so they clearly state that tenants may become responsible for water usage charges if residential water metering is introduced in future.

More broadly, landlords should budget realistically. Water infrastructure investment is expensive, and it would be sensible to expect both rates and water-related costs to continue increasing over the next five years.

Is Tiaki Wai a good thing?

In the long run, probably yes.

A modern water network - particularly one supported by metering and better leak detection - should improve efficiency and make it easier to identify infrastructure problems early.

The challenge is that Wellington is effectively playing catch-up on decades of underinvestment, which means improvements are likely to come with significant costs in the short to medium term.

Can landlords install private water meters themselves?

It is of course possible to do so, but whether or not Tiaki Wai will allow this and then bill for consumption separately, is quite unclear. If Tiaki Wai cannot bill for water use separately as a result of a private meter being installed, then you have no grounds to bill tenants for consumption.

Will property managers handle Tiaki Wai bills?

When metering & consumption is rolled out, we will look to streamline the process of billing for you. At the moment, rates bills are sent to property owners directly and are paid directly - the initial Tiaki Wai bills should follow the same process, but let us know if we can help.