Water bills delayed for Kerikeri

Kerikeri households and businesses connected to Council water supplies will not receive their next water invoice in September after COVID-19 restrictions prevented meter readers from visiting properties.

Customers normally receive an invoice for water use every six months. Those in the Kerikeri area were scheduled to be billed this month with payment due by 20 October.

Chief Executive, Shaun Clarke, says that recent COVID-19 lockdown restrictions prevented meter readers visiting Kerikeri properties to record water consumption. To prevent billing delays to water customers elsewhere in the district, meter readers must continue with their set meter reading schedule, which means they will not return to the Kerikeri area for another six months. The Council will therefore bill households and businesses connected to its Kerikeri water supply for 12 months of water use in March 2022.  

“We did consider providing Kerikeri households and business owners with an estimated account, but for legal reasons we cannot do this. I want to apologise for any difficulties this may cause, and I urge all Kerikeri customers to take account of this in their budgeting.”

To help customers manage their budgets and to avoid facing a large bill in March, Mr Clarke is encouraging people to consider signing up to the Council’s Rates EasyPay direct debit agreement. This allows for water bills to be paid by weekly, fortnightly or monthly instalments. These will be calculated based on the previous two meter readings.

Customers with questions about their water account, or who want to set up direct debit payments, can contact the Council on 0800 920 029 and ask for the Rates Team. Alternatively, they can email ask.us@fndc.govt.nz putting ‘Kerikeri water query’ in the subject line.