Charges and pricing

If you’re having trouble paying your Tiaki Wai water services bill, you’re not alone and you won’t be penalised for asking for support. Visit the hardship support webpage for more information.

Your water services bill pays for the infrastructure that supplies the water, not the water itself.

Your water services bill covers costs for the infrastructure networks that supply clean water to your property that’s safe to drink, remove wastewater from your sinks and toilets, and take away the stormwater from your downpipes and the streets and other public areas.

Before Tiaki Wai was set up, property owners were already paying for water services through council rates. Now, water services charges have been removed from your council rates bills and are being billed separately by Tiaki Wai. Your Tiaki Wai bill is separate, not on top of your council rates. You will not be charged for water services twice.

Property owners are now responsible for paying the cost of water services directly to Tiaki Wai, rather than through council rates. 

For the first year, councils are providing billing services on behalf of Tiaki Wai using their existing systems and payment cycles. This means quarterly Tiaki Wai invoices are aligned with council rates cycles, with payment due at the beginning of the last month of each three-month billing period.

There will be opportunities to review and refine these arrangements as Tiaki Wai establishes its own billing capability in future years.

Each quarterly invoice covers water services for the full three-month period. By the time you receive it, services have already been provided for part of the period, with services continuing through the remainder of the period. The due date helps ensure these essential services can continue to be delivered to our communities without interruption.

If you prefer to spread your payments over time rather than pay the full amount on the due date, you can set up a direct debit and pay by weekly, fortnightly, or monthly instalments. Property owners in Lower Hutt can set up direct debit arrangements using Payble.

For the year (2026/27), Tiaki Wai water services charges are calculated in a similar way to how councils calculated them previously, using a mix of fixed charges and charges based on the capital value of your property. This means that current charging arrangements vary from city to city.

Charging only relates to water usage if a property already has an existing water meter that was previously billed by council.

For more information on how charges are currently calculated, visit this webpage.

The long-term goal is to ensure water services charges are consistent for similar properties using comparable services, regardless of location, promoting fairness and equity in charging across the region.

Switching to more consistent pricing or ‘harmonisation’ is not as simple as moving everyone to a single regional price average. It will take several years to work through the issues.

How and when this transition to a harmonised approach takes place will be analysed and consulted on through the 2027-37 Water Services Strategy. 

In the future, the installation of residential water meters will allow charging to reflect water usage, but this is several years away.

You will receive separate water usage invoices for your metered water on the same frequency that you received them from your council.
 
You will also need to pay Tiaki Wai separately for other water service-related charges that were previously part of your council rates bill (eg, wastewater and stormwater). This means that you will get three separate bills: one for non-water related rates from your council, one for water services from Tiaki Wai, and one for volumetric water charges, also from Tiaki Wai. 

There will be a reduction in your council rates bill due to water charges being removed and charged separately. However, this does not mean overall household costs will reduce, as water charges, and rates for some councils, have increased since last year.

Water services charges have increased since they separated from council rates. This is to meet the costs of making essential upgrades to existing infrastructure and investing in a more sustainable future of water services.

Charges for water services vary from property to property. Across all council areas, the average increase for water services this year for residential properties without a water meter is around $5.40 a week.

Future cost increases are around a third less than increases likely if councils had continued to be responsible for water services, because of greater borrowing capacity and efficiency gains, but will still present a challenge for many households.

The exact amount to be charged each year will depend on the pace of delivering maintenance and upgrades, and the level of cost recovery from new developments.

If you’re struggling to pay your water services bill, Tiaki Wai has support available for residential customers facing genuine financial hardship.

Yes. Click on your city below for details on paying, including setting up direct debits. If you have property in more than one city, you will need to set up arrangements for each separately.

Wellington

Lower Hutt

Porirua

Upper Hutt

The rates rebate scheme is operated by the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) and administered by councils on behalf of DIA.

The rates rebate scheme has been extended to include both rates and water charges to work out how much you might get as a council rates rebate.

Your council will continue to administer the rates rebate scheme and will include your Tiaki Wai water charges when calculating your total rates payable. This means your water charges may help you qualify for a rebate or increase the amount you receive.

Any approved rebate will be applied to your council rates account only. The rebate cannot be applied directly to your Tiaki Wai account, therefore, your Tiaki Wai invoice remains payable in full by the due date shown on the invoice.

Please refer to the Department of Internal Affairs website for further information about rates rebates and details about how to apply.

Completed applications should be sent to your Council:

• Porirua City Council
• Hutt City Council
• Upper Hutt City Council
• Wellington City Council

This depends on the type of water service and where your property is located.

If your property is not connected to the public wastewater network, you won't be charged for wastewater services.

If your property is not connected to the public water supply network, you may still need to pay a reduced water supply charge if your property can be connected to the public water supply. This reflects that the network is available to service your property.

You may also need to pay stormwater charges if your property is within a stormwater service area, even if it is not connected to the public water supply or wastewater networks. Stormwater charges help fund the public stormwater network that manages rainwater runoff across urban areas.

Most rural properties that are not connected to the water services network will not receive any water services charges.

There are a small number of semi-rural developments that are serviced by the stormwater network but are not connected to the water supply and wastewater network. These properties are charged for stormwater services only.

You can pay your bill by direct debit, online banking, phone banking, or over the counter at NZ Post stores that offer bill-payment services.

Customers in Lower Hutt can set up direct debit arrangements via online platform Payble.

If you’d like to spread your payments over time, you will need to set up a new direct debit authority at least five days before the due date of your first invoice (1 September).

You can find information on ways to pay your water services invoices on our billing page.

There will be no change to how you pay your council rates, for example if you have a current direct debit authority for your council rates, that will continue.

The property owner (landlord) receives the invoices for water charges from Tiaki Wai and is responsible for paying. A landlord may seek reimbursement from tenants for metered water charges, but not for any other water services charges.

The Tenancy Services website has information about who is responsible for paying water services charges.

Tenants should have a discussion with their landlord if they are interested in how water service costs are factored into rent.

Charges need to rise because the region’s water infrastructure has been under-funded for decades and now requires major work. Between $5.7 and $8.2 billion dollars is needed over 10 years to replace aging pipes, meet modern standards, and support growth. Without higher charges, essential work won’t be able to be done.

Stormwater charges apply only to properties within designated urban stormwater service areas in Wellington, Porirua, Lower Hutt and Upper Hutt.

Properties outside these urban stormwater service areas are generally considered rural and typically rely on natural drainage rather than public stormwater networks. As a result, they are not charged by Tiaki Wai for stormwater services. 

For the 2026/27 year, rural properties located outside a stormwater service area are not charged stormwater fees by Tiaki Wai, even if stormwater costs were previously included as part of council rates. Charges are based on the public stormwater services available to and benefiting each property. 

Yes, Tiaki Wai will continue to charge development contributions. Tiaki Wai has adopted the relevant parts of each Council’s previous Development Contributions Policy and incorporated them into its own Development Contributions Policy, available here 

Even if your car park or vacant lot does not have a water or wastewater connection, you may still receive a stormwater services charge if it is located within an area served by a stormwater network.

All property that is a ‘rateable unit’ within a council’s rating system incur water services charges if the property is either connected to the water supply or wastewater services network, and/or within a stormwater service zone. If your carpark has a separate title (for example in an apartment building or unit titled carpark building), you will receive a separate water services invoice for the car park, as you do for rates on that property from your council.

This is not a new charge. These types of property were incurring water services charges previously as part of council rates. For customers in Hutt or Porirua City, those charges were incorporated into your general rates. Wellington and Upper Hutt customers will have previously seen this charge as a targeted rate on their council rates invoice.

Property owners are paying for the shared community stormwater infrastructure rather than specific stormwater infrastructure servicing their property. Tiaki Wai stormwater charges go towards the maintenance and improvement of the piped stormwater network that serves the whole community, including underground pipes, drains, detention tanks, culverts, and stormwater pump stations that carry rainwater away from streets and public areas as well as from individual properties. Even if there isn’t a public asset directly connected to, or outside, your property, it benefits from the wider network, and these costs are shared cross the neighbourhood.

Your water services bill covers costs for the infrastructure networks that supply clean water to your property that’s safe to drink, remove wastewater from your sinks and toilets, and take away the stormwater from your downpipes and the streets and other public areas.   
 
This includes the day-to-day operation and maintenance of pipes, pump stations, drinking water and wastewater treatment plants, and associated infrastructure. Water services charges also fund long-term investments in renewals, upgrades, and new infrastructure to help with leak reduction, improved wastewater treatment, and the resilience of the network. 
 
Your water services bill pays for the infrastructure that supplies the water, not the water itself.

Yes. Before 1 July 2026, water services were included as part of council rates. After 1 July, when Tiaki Wai took over responsibility of water services, these charges were removed from council rates and billed by Tiaki Wai. Council rates reduced to reflect the removal of water charges.