The PROPERTY DOCTORS, Sydney Australia Novak Properties

EP. 1273 … THE METER MAFIA… GAS,ENERGY,INTERNET…. BLOOD IN BLOOD OUT :)

• Mark Novak, Cleo Whithear • Season 27 • Episode 1273

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Ever wrestled with sinus troubles from gas heaters or hit a roadblock trying to connect utilities in your new apartment? Our latest episode promises to unravel these everyday frustrations, and more, with expert insights from Claire Wheatley. Discover how to navigate the maze of home gas energy management, from maintaining clean filters to ensuring proper ventilation, and learn why exclusive utility provider contracts could be adding to your stress.

Cleo Whithear joins us to share her wisdom on tackling the often-overlooked complexities of property networks and utility setups. Hear real-life stories that highlight the importance of asking the right questions to property managers and landlords before moving in. From dealing with outdated gas meters to the chaos of setting up internet services, we provide practical advice to help you stay ahead of potential issues. Whether you're a tenant or a property manager, this episode is packed with essential tips to make your utility management a breeze.

Speaker 2:

yeah, we're gonna talk about gas energy, internet meters, the metamafia. Stay tuned. I'm the ringleader, cleo Whittier Morning.

Speaker 1:

Cat burglar A little bit like that today. How are ya? I'm good. I burglar A little bit like that today. How are you? I'm good, I'm good, oh, I'm good. I'm feeling a bit sinus-y at the moment. There's something going around, but still fine, just blame the COVID jab. I know, I know my husband this morning was trying to tell me that it's all because of the heater and I said you'd do anything to save money. It's not the heater, it's cold.

Speaker 2:

You know what? The gas heater at home can't be Gassing yourself and heating yourself. You'd think it sounds a bit weird, but I love gas at home. It's so bloody quick.

Speaker 1:

It is. It warms the room so quick Like it goes from 19 degrees to 22 in literally like 10 minutes. It's the best, that's what you want. But yeah, if you look at the filter at the back, it's very dusty.

Speaker 2:

I think the secret's to leave the window open a little bit, because I always fall asleep with it on.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

The gas meter goes on at night. But today you've been. This is a show we're doing a little bit out of helplessness, hopelessness. You've been a bit smashed this week when it comes to these meters that are being installed in these properties and nobody really talks about it. So, and when you're a tenant moving into a property, you don't really ask the question. When you're an owner buying in a building, you don't really ask the question. But how buildings are being metered or houses are being metered, suppliers, contracts it's becoming a big thing. Never used to be, but it is now.

Speaker 1:

There's a lot of control around it and it can be, I could imagine, very frustrating for a tenant to connect gas or electricity in some of these unit blocks and you don't realise that at the start. You know the lease agreement says that the eight, you know the landlord's not responsible for utilities, as in connections and things like that, like it's all all up to the tenant. But then the tenants don't. Usually, you know they don't think that we don't have all the answers like that. We have keys like mbf, keys to all the meter rooms that we know the ins and outs and the people that come that read the meter so they can connect you, they say, oh, we'll be there between nine and five or whatever, and you're at work, you're gonna be home all day, like it's so annoying yeah, but everyone works, but not when the meter's got to be uh, installed something.

Speaker 2:

So it's quite interesting that we've always just assumed the old-fashioned methods is what's adopted with all buildings. But just to fast forward, to give you a massive example for people that are watching the developers now, to give an example, we had a building in dy. The developer had to install intercoms, security cctv. Um, he had to install uh, gas meters and electric, electrical meters. Quite a big cost for a developer. Common sense that you've got to install that stuff because you're going to sell the units. They need essential services.

Speaker 2:

Now the developer in that case there's probably the worst case example. So don't you know not to freak people out, but it's, it's happening more and more the developer in this case got a big fat check, um, and what that was for is one energy provider said you give me your 80 or 150 units that you're building, I will install the meters for free. I will install the internet, I will install everything for free, you don't have to pay a cent. We know you don't have to put in the meters and pay for it. We will pay for it, but we want to be able to charge the tenants um what we want and we don't want the tenant, with tenants or buyers, to go anywhere else. So we need you to sign, mr developer, the building over for three years or five years, exclusively to us.

Speaker 2:

The people cannot go anywhere else for their internet, cannot go anywhere else, for their power cannot go anywhere else for their gas. Why? Because we're spending big bucks on putting all in all these meters. But the good news is we're gonna buy our energy bulk. We're gonna buy it bulk. We're gonna buy it for less than what the occupants can buy it for individually, and then we're gonna resell them it, and that it'll still be cheap.

Speaker 1:

Sometimes it's not yeah, that that sounds like a great deal for the developer, but I did. I remember having a tenant that moved into a unit block with embedded network and he was in it and he thought he was so clever and could get around it and have his own internet provider and he went through all these efforts and ended up breaking the lease, moving out. So you know, it's, it's. I can see the value for some people, but I think they've got better the embedded networks. They've got better in the providers that they've chosen. I do know, um, we recently purchased a property. It's got an embedded network, but it's great.

Speaker 1:

Um, but yeah, like the old, the old meters that are in the old unit blocks you know pre-19, you know 70s sort of builds you know they have these old gas meters and recently we've started renovating in a kitchen. So you rip all the plumbing out, you want to move the gas meter if you want to reconfigure the kitchen and then the plumber goes. He goes to put the tapware back in, leaves it's all nice and connected and then boom, it starts to flood. This is a real scenario A brand-new kitchen, new floor, new cupboards. There's water pouring out. So you can imagine, plumber goes back out there goes yeah, it's nothing I've done, it's the hot water union to the gas meter. You need to replace the meter and we can't do that. Okay, fair enough, who does that? That's Gemna, and you've got to call them. And then they come out. Well, it's been what? Five days and no hot water. This is an essential service. Hot water they.

Speaker 2:

This is an essential this is an essential essential service hot water an essential service, not just that you know um you.

Speaker 1:

You use it for washing up if you don't have a dishwasher like it's. There's so many things like, not just sharing that, yeah, I have a shower every day exactly who doesn't, sometimes two times a day, you know, morning and night.

Speaker 1:

Like, come on anyway, and I've been in a standoff with them. I call. It's like calling a call center and getting eight different people. Oh yes, I can see, you made a call. Let me. Let me put that through for you. Now, let me.

Speaker 1:

And then I'm like, I create work orders every day with trades people. How many work orders do you need to create? Like, like, where is this loop going? It's just going round and round and round and round and round and round.

Speaker 1:

And then I get messages from a side company called Zinfra, who are the contractors for Gemna. So they then send text messages, ones that you can't reply to, saying oh, can you send me a video of the meter leaking? I'm like, no, I cannot. I've had a plumber who I've paid to come and diagnose the issue. I'm not leaving my job to then go and video a meter that's not going to leak because the water's turned off. And then so, in order to escalate the call, so you do know there's two fractions of this company, so there's the gas people and then there's the water people still one meter. But if there's the issue with the gas, they're different contractors and if there's the issue with the water component of the gas meter then it's other contractors.

Speaker 1:

They sent the wrong contractor. Yesterday it was a lady who was there for the gas, thinking we had a gas leak. I said I never said we had a gas leak. I used the word hot water union, which is not in my everyday terminology, so I must have had a plumber go out anyway. They're meant to have been there at seven o'clock this morning. They still haven't arrived. I just want to rip it out, so when?

Speaker 2:

So, because it's an old system, I thought that you know like Sydney Water would just turn up and put in a new meter.

Speaker 1:

Gemna are meant to do that. If you call them and go on hold and they say if you've received a text message from us saying that we're here to replace your meter, no need to call back. Apparently, they do it every 10 years. Well, I know for a fact the meter in this unit is over 30 years old. There's been no attempt to change the meter. And how many gas meters are there in rental properties? How could they possibly keep up with changing them every 10 years? It's, it's only when something goes wrong. And then if you're in a strata complex as well, where they're controlled by you know the body corporate, that's even more of a nightmare it's.

Speaker 2:

It's one of your own strata, your one, no internally in the kitchen.

Speaker 1:

But the issue with that um as well, yeah, and just just what about accessibility to the meter? Like so, you reconfigure this whole kitchen, move the meter in the corner, not thinking that you're going to need to replace it. It's like these hot water systems that you know owners used to put in and tuck away in corners and then you can't get to them when something goes wrong.

Speaker 2:

Yes. So if you're not prepared for stuff like this, guys and girls, um, hopefully this show has helped, because the whole meter thing very serious, very costly. Um, you know, if I was a tenant there was no way in the world I would think I wouldn't be able to connect my own internet to the new building that I'm moving into. But now, with these embedded networks, think twice. Ask before you're about to buy something, ask before you're about to rent something, particularly in a strata. What sort of metering is there? Because if it's an embedded network, some of them are good, some of them are bad. I remember the embedded network we had in dy in one of our stratas. So we had 40 sets of tenants move ins building at about a hundred. We sold the building, we sold to a lot of landlords. We had 40 properties for rent, they all moved in and the embedded provider said you need a connection to your unit from the main.

Speaker 2:

Downstairs never went and I paid for that and then the embedded network was like the tenant pays, and how much was it? Was $300 and that and and the tenants, and then.

Speaker 1:

I had to reimburse them back.

Speaker 2:

There was. There's no chance we're going to pay $300 to get this connected. It should already be there. Why isn't it there? And it was just a really nice little jag for the embedded network. I thought Like of course you'd have to. You should have it connected to every bloody unit. It's power.

Speaker 1:

It's internet it's like it's yeah, it's, it's internet. It's like it's weird, anyway it is. It's like you said, it's a mafia no one talks about, but it's happening you know what best way around?

Speaker 2:

it is just awareness, and I think that it's pretty hard for you to google, um, a property manager, you know like just hey, is this happening in DY or Northern Beaches or in Sydney? It's hard to find this information. Watch out for embedded networks. There's bad Watch out for these meter changes and where you're putting your meter and getting information. It reminds me of my Telstra internet, when I had to get that connected once upon a time. You just go on this merry-go-round.

Speaker 1:

It's honestly a merry-go-round and it's, yeah, like you said, having all the information is key being prepared, getting set up before you move in, things like that asking your property manager, your landlords and when you're purchasing a property, do all your due diligence as well, because you don't want to have a tenant then move in and then realise things aren't meted the way you think it's meted, and things like that. Then it becomes a nightmare.

Speaker 2:

Claire Wheatley. Thank you very much.

Speaker 1:

See, you have a great day.

Speaker 2:

Bye.

Speaker 1:

Ron, take care.

Speaker 2:

Bye.