Water Billing and Mock Bills

Mock water bills

In August 2025, elected members agreed to change how households pay for water. This means households will move from paying one flat yearly charge through rates to paying based on how much water they use.

This change is about helping our district use water wisely and fairly. Households that use less water will pay less.

In April/May and July/August 2027, we’ll be sending mock bills to households. Your mock bill shows how much water your household has used during the previous three months, and how much that water would have cost if charging by volume were in place today.

This mock bill is not an invoice – it is for information only. Please do not pay.

Your water supply will continue to be paid as part of your rates until July next year (2027).

Your mock water bill will help you prepare

Households will receive quarterly mock bills before charging for the amount of water used starts in July 2027. These mock bills will give you time before the real bills arrive to understand:

• How much water your household used in the previous three months.

• How much that water would have cost if water-use charging had already started.

Note that the mock bills’ charges will be based on an indicative price set in March 2027. The final price will depend on a few factors, including public consultation by Wai Hononga in the New Year.

If you think your water use is unusually high or there’s a sudden increase, there could be a leak at your property, so this mock billing period gives you time to check and fix problems early. (Any leaks on your property, up to the water toby, are the homeowner’s responsibility to fix and pay for.)

We encourage you to fix any leaks before charging volumetrically starts in July next year, to help keep your future bills down.

This is also a good opportunity to try water-saving measures, such as shorter showers or reduced garden-watering, and see exactly how much they will lower your future bills. We have more water-saving tips here. 

Key things to know about mock water bills

• These mock bills are for your information only; please do not make a payment from them.
• Your mock bill is unique to your household and shows only the amount of water your household has used. Note: if you’re on a shared meter, the bill shows only what your household’s portion of the charge would be under volumetric billing.
• Properties that are part of a body corporate will have a single bill going to the body corporate, which will then divide the bill equally between properties and on-charge to individual property owners (when actual billing begins from October 2027).
• When charging volumetrically starts from October 2027, the current yearly fixed charge (uniform annual charge) for water supply, as well as the yearly fixed charge for wastewater, will be removed from your rates bill. Both the volumetric water charge and the fixed yearly wastewater charge will be on the water bill from Wai Hononga, NPDC’s council-controlled organisation (CCO).
• The stormwater service will still be operated by NPDC, via a fixed annual charge; only the water supply and wastewater service charges are being managed by Wai Hononga.
• By law, councils and water CCOs (like NPDC’s Wai Hononga) may only recover the costs of treating, supplying and disposing of water. They are not allowed to make a profit.