Another Surprise Utility Bill
This morning I was given a utility bill for the Durban house which we rent out and this is absolutely absurd. The balance bought forward is what is being questioned as our normal monthly utility bill is between R6 and R9K.
The R76 K bill ($4.5K) is due to 2 water leaks we experienced over the last 6 weeks which is kind of scary that the tenants who are clueless which is being kind never pricked this up immediately. When i lived there I monitored the meters daily just having a quick look that nothing was out of the ordinary. The problem with an underground leak is you may not notice this immediately and takes time for the water to be visible on the surface.
This property can expect at least one leak per year and it is not the plumbing fault, but the water pressure not being stable in the area. When the water pressure spikes it will find the weakest point to break through which is normally a join or a bend and there is nothing that can be done about this. I have lost count of how many water leaks we have had over the years and the average is one per year so that would place the number at over 20. Compare that to where I live now being 7 years and we have not had one underground leak so this is not normal for most households. If I had known this 20 years ago I would have had all the underground piping replaced so there is no point now as I would like to get this house on the market and sold.
Having had this property for close to 22 years it is long overdue to be sold yet I have a sick family member staying in the granny flat. There is not much I can do right now as to selling the property and I am stuck as I would be a proper bastard to kick the family member out. Timelines they do not give her that long to live as she is well into her nineties now and one cannot think like that as it is morally wrong.
The one big plus is the property is fully paid off and over the last 20 odd years has risen in value by roughly 300%. Not great considering this was paid with GBP and the local Rand currency has depreciated by 100% since that date of purchase. There is a small profit to be had and a good lesson learned that never buy a property using a foreign stable currency in a country that has a depreciating currency.
I am not sure how we are going to resolve this utility bill as normally the municipality expects you to pay the bill and then use their water insurance claim. This insurance they offer is not ideal as you are lucky to see a 25% return so in this case I will be out of pocket no matter what and this was not my fault. The other costs not thrown into this calculation was the call out of emergency plumbers which repaired the broken pipes on two separate occasions.
I honestly need these bills like a hole in my head right now and knowing this will not be resolved quickly. I have been wanting to put this property on the market for a number of years now as these water leaks have been ongoing and you just know there will be more.
Posted Using INLEO
By American standards 300% increase in 22 years is not great without even taking into account currency depreciation... The house I bought in 2001 for 265K was sold for a million in 2021 and that is considered poor appreciation here as I bought that house in a bad area. 340K house bought in 2001 in a good area was 2.5 million in 2021...
I agree this is a very poor return when I compare to my UK property doubling in value every 5 years. If I add business rights I think I could make a bigger return.
The worst part about underground leaks is that they’re invisible until the bill arrives, and by then, the damage is done. It’s a tough lesson on why monitoring the meter is so important, but you can’t really blame yourself when you aren't living on-site.