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Fees and charges

The Water Services (Fees and Charges) Regulations 2021 stipulate the fees and charges that must be paid for applications under the Water Services Act 2021. These currently apply to the following: 

• registering temporary drinking water supplies for planned events  
• general exemptions  
• residual disinfection exemptions. 

The fees and charges are based on recovering actual and reasonable costs to process the applications. All fees and charges listed below are exclusive of GST.  

Application fees and charges are set out in the table below.  

• Application fees: include a minimum number of hours for assessment and must be paid when the application is submitted.
• Charges that may be applied to applications include:  
  
  • additional assessment hours at $130 per hour, plus partial hours, after the hours included in the application fee  
  • expert advice (generally for residual disinfection exemption applications only) capped at $400 per hour  
  • incidental costs (travel, accommodation or reasonable associated costs). 

The charges will be invoiced after the decision has been made and notified to the applicant. 

How do I pay the application fee?   

After your application has been submitted you’ll receive an email outlining the fee, how to pay it, and what happens next. An invoice for the application fee will be sent to the billing address provided in your application form.   

You can either pay on the invoice or via internet banking to the Taumata Arowai account number 03-0566-0225575-000 with the following information:  

• Reference field: the unique identifier from the email 

• Code field: name of your event  

This information will help us confirm the payment is for your application so the assessment process can begin.

The application fee is non-refundable if the application is declined following the assessment process.

Estimating final charges for applications 

Once you’ve paid your application fee, we’ll do an initial assessment to confirm if the fee covers the assessment process.   

If the application fee doesn’t cover the estimated processing costs: 

• we’ll advise you of the estimated final charges  
• you’ll be asked to confirm you accept the estimated charges 
• once you’ve accepted the estimated charges, the assessment will begin 
• we’ll email you and provide an invoice once the decision has been made.

If you don’t accept the estimated charges, please let us know you’ll be withdrawing your application. You will then receive a full refund. 

The estimated final charge may be revised to: 

• reflect changed circumstances  
• correct errors for incidental cost charges  
• more accurately reflect the amount likely to be payable for any other charges (i.e. assessment or expert advice charges).

We’ll advise you if these situations arise.  

The Regulations sets a cap on the charge for incidental costs. However, there is no cap for assessment and expert advice charges. The estimate is an indication of the final charge.

When may a refund, waiver or reduction apply? 

The Chief Executive of the Water Services Authority - Taumata Arowai may refund, waive or reduce a fee or charge if it is: 

• necessary to correct an administrative error; or 
• unreasonable to recover the fee or charge.