Auckland tenants stung for landlords' water fees

A tenant advocate and a lobby group for landlords are calling for an overhaul to Auckland's confusing system for allocating water rates. Under the current system, tenants pay the metered rate of water while landlords are liable for a fixed connection charge of about two hundred dollars a year. But in many cases landlords are passing the fixed part of the rates on to tenants - often not realising they are meant to pay it. Kathryn Ryan speaks to Andrew King, chief executive of the Property Investors' Federation and to Iain Davies, a budgeting advisor at Care Waitakere Trust.