huske Posted July 19, 2016 Share Posted July 19, 2016 Hi everyone, if all goes well we will be moving to Brisbane towards the end of this year... We will be renting for first couple of years, looking at renting a 3 bed house for about $350/400 max per week. I want to ask what other bills are additional on top of rent ( ie water, electricity, gas, internet, council tax,tv licence...???!!!) , how they are paid(weekly, monthly/) and what to expect cost wise for a family of 3 ? Need to do a bit of number crunching.... Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
srh82 Posted July 19, 2016 Share Posted July 19, 2016 No TV license here. Electricity budget $200-400 per month (lower in winter, higher in summer if you have air-con) Telephone/Internet $80 per month is what we pay Mobile PAYG $30 per month is what I use Landlord pays rates, body corporate and water. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huske Posted July 19, 2016 Author Share Posted July 19, 2016 No TV license here. Electricity budget $200-400 per month (lower in winter, higher in summer if you have air-con) Telephone/Internet $80 per month is what we pay Mobile PAYG $30 per month is what I use Landlord pays rates, body corporate and water. Thank you for the info! Can I ask what "body corporate" means exactly??? Sorry if its a daft question, but new to this... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 19, 2016 Share Posted July 19, 2016 Body corporate is service charges for Apartments/Townhouses. For us (family of 3) in a unit costs are: Electricity $75 a month Internet + phone $59.99 a month (TPG) Mobile phone $25 each month (Aldi mobile) No TV license. Landlord should cover water and rates (council tax) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davlap Posted July 19, 2016 Share Posted July 19, 2016 Is landlord paying water a Brisbane thing? Only asking because in Vic we rent and pay. Hoping to move to Brisbane sometime Usually $100 a quarter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huske Posted July 19, 2016 Author Share Posted July 19, 2016 Body corporate is service charges for Apartments/Townhouses. For us (family of 3) in a unit costs are: Electricity $75 a month Internet + phone $59.99 a month (TPG) Mobile phone $25 each month (Aldi mobile) No TV license. Landlord should cover water and rates (council tax) Ok, so am I right at thinking that living in a townhouse is cheaper (bills wise) than detached house? looks like it is...Mind need to reconsider... Also what is your average food bill ish - just to get an idea as we are a family of 3 as well? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vickyplum Posted July 19, 2016 Share Posted July 19, 2016 Thank you for the info! Can I ask what "body corporate" means exactly??? Sorry if its a daft question, but new to this... Body corporate is the entity who own the leasehold (or represent the owner) - ie, block of flats, So paying the body corporate, would be like the service / maintenance fees in a flat or other leasehold property in the UK (looking after communal areas, repairs to building etc). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 19, 2016 Share Posted July 19, 2016 Ok, so am I right at thinking that living in a townhouse is cheaper (bills wise) than detached house? looks like it is...Mind need to reconsider...Also what is your average food bill ish - just to get an idea as we are a family of 3 as well? Thanks! Not necessarily. But obviously a smaller place is cheaper to cool/heat and an apartment will have better insulation properties than a queenslander house for example. I would recommend a townhouse/unit at your budget however as you can live way closer to the city and get to enjoy it more before you look to buy and be easier to get to know the place. There's also millions of apartments being built which would suppress rents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest241083 Posted July 19, 2016 Share Posted July 19, 2016 ..fees reflect the aminities available...! .......the more there is.....ie pool.....security.....often the larger complexes... ........the dearer the fee.... .......and not all landlords pay water..! .......though sometimes just the excess is passed on to the tenant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest241083 Posted July 19, 2016 Share Posted July 19, 2016 ........just to add ,when renting you have a bond to pay... ........usually 4 weeks rent.... ........this is held untill you vacate the property.....and will be refunded in full ........if there is no damage or outstanding rent... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eera Posted July 19, 2016 Share Posted July 19, 2016 Is landlord paying water a Brisbane thing?Only asking because in Vic we rent and pay. Hoping to move to Brisbane sometime Usually $100 a quarter Depends on the property. Here a tenant can be charged water if the property is water efficient and has an individual meter, otherwise tenant pays excess. Got a feeling tenant can't be charged for water at all if there's a communal meter like some unit blocks have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loopylu Posted July 19, 2016 Share Posted July 19, 2016 Hi everyone, if all goes well we will be moving to Brisbane towards the end of this year... We will be renting for first couple of years, looking at renting a 3 bed house for about $350/400 max per week. I want to ask what other bills are additional on top of rent ( ie water, electricity, gas, internet, council tax,tv licence...???!!!) , how they are paid(weekly, monthly/) and what to expect cost wise for a family of 3 ? Need to do a bit of number crunching.... Thanks! Water, electricity and council tax are usually billed quarterly. If you don't pay on time then they start charging interest immediately. You can opt to set up a direct debit bill smoothing facility (like UK fixed monthly direct debit with annual reconciliation) for these utilities but we found they tended to overestimate consumption.... The other thing that is happening here is that electricity suppliers are starting to charge you for paper bills to force you to go with email bills. The other big bill here is the rego (car registration). We have two cars and one is over $600 a year (2.4 litre engine) and the other is $800+ per annum (V6 engine). Basically the bigger the engine size the more you pay. Also you have to pay vehicle registrationduty when you buy any car (eg Vehicle type: Vehicle with 1 to 4 cylinders, 2 rotors or a steam vehicle Vehicle value: $10,000 Duty payable: $300.00) Cost of internet is difficult to quantify as it depends on where you live and what options are available. Where we live, we are pretty much constrained to using Telstra to get decent service. We also have a fairly basic Foxtel package with two boxes so that we have access to UK TV and BBC First (Oz TV is pretty second rate!) included in our Telstra package along with a landline. We pay $210 a month for the package. Food shopping here can be expensive if you do the equivalent of the UK weekly supermarket shop. To save money, we use independent greengrocers and butchers and also buy basic goods from Aldi. The other thing to factor in is the cost of medical treatment. No such thing as free prescriptions or dentistry here (eg for kids). You do get a free annual eye test paid for by Medicare... If a prescription medicine is on the PBS (a govt authorised list) then you pay the retail price for it up to a capped maximum price of approximately $30. If it isn't on the PBS (eg I use a steroid nasal spray which isn't - costs $49 for a 30 day dose!) then you pay the price that it costs. If you can't find a GP who bulk bills (ie only charges the amount funded by Medicare) then you pay whatever the GP charges (anything up to $80 for 10 minutes) and can claim back approx $37 on Medicare for the appointment. There are lots of other areas where you pay gaps on Medicare. My GP requires me to have a mammogram and ultrasound annually. I used to be able to get this bulk billed but since the screening facility upgraded its equipment, a gap of $200 has been introduced. The cost of everyday living here is much higher than in the UK, other than the cost of petrol. As a rule of thumb, make sure you get a job which pays approx 1/3 more than in the UK so that you are no worse off. Hope the above helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
srg73 Posted July 19, 2016 Share Posted July 19, 2016 Landlord pays rates, body corporate and water. Wrong, with new properties water is metered and the tenants responsibility. Therefore for any new arrivals, allow for water bills also. Most at importantly ensure you get a property with good through ventilation as this will save you AC usage and costs. We used our AC twice last summer only. S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huske Posted July 19, 2016 Author Share Posted July 19, 2016 Thanks for bringing the rego to my attention- is it something like road tax in the UK then, but more expensive? What about car insurance? Is it compulsory? Can you bring UK No Claims Bonus with you to get a discount? We pay around £300 per year on 2,2l Toyota Avensis with maximum No Claims Discount.. Sorry about all the questions, but just trying to work out the "worst case financial scenario" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rammygirl Posted July 19, 2016 Share Posted July 19, 2016 I have a golf. Pay $700 rego and $680 insurance. Obviously costs vary depending where you live and cover but rego is fixed by state. also even state schools are not free exactly. You pay for books and equipment and other admin fees of a few hundred a year. Uniforms can be expensive too with no cheap supermarket options. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calNgary Posted July 19, 2016 Share Posted July 19, 2016 I just wanted to mention that some of the costs that have been mentioned are subsidised by the government if you have a PR visa. For example... Dentists arent cheap but if your child is in school you are given a $1000 voucher each year and i find this covers check ups, cleans and the odd filling very well. On top of this you also have access to a free school dentist. For adults its worth shopping around as i found prices vary lots from surgery to surgery. Schools do charge a voluntary/ shared resource fee and you are expected to pay for uniform, books etc too.. There is currently a school kids bonus paid to families who recieve Family Tax credit and i found this more than covers what your kids need. In fact when i received it a couple of years ago i also found it covered the cost of most school trips etc too. Off the top of my head i think the payment to us was around $450 for primary children and $800 for high school. At the time my local primary schools voluntary fee was $55 and high school $200, book list for primary around $75, high school $100/ $150. Hope this helps you understand things a little easier. Cal x p.s// If you are coming on PR you can also claim Family tax benefit a and b (amount paid is based on income), child care allowance and rent assistance if needed whilst you find your feet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roberta2 Posted July 20, 2016 Share Posted July 20, 2016 You are being misinformed here. Tenant does NOT pay Body Corporate levies, which apply only for Community Title schemes. Flats, units, most townhouses. Anything other than a free standing house, in effect. Landlord pays those. Landlord pays water rates but can - and usually does - charge tenants for usage. That is one of the reasons that tenants in houses or townhouses usually don't like to have to look after too much garden. Landlord pays council rates, insurance for the building, landlord insurance, pest control etc. I know, because I am just doing my tax! Tenants will have to pay to ensure their personal possessions. Most places are rented out without furniture. There must be a stove, but tenants usually provide their own fridge. Plus their own electricity and gas bills, internet and phone charges. Tenants rent a property as is. i.e. they cannot ask to have things put in that are not there. (One of my tenants once wanted solar electricity). However, it's a renter's market, and a wise landlord will agree to reasonable requests. e.g. maybe an extra ceiling fan. I have agreed to requests for extra security grills that I thought reasonable. Tenants in unit complexes with pools, barbeques, lap pools etc do NOT pay for use of these common facilities. Of course, the landlord will charge higher rent because he/she has to pay much higher body corporate levies. Ditto a large building with a lot of lifts will cost landlords much more. In a large building, there should be an onsite manager, which can make things easier for tenants. Tenants can ask of course for the landlord to fix things. Property agent will usually take photos of the place when you move in. Smoke alarms must be wired in, and must be inspected annually. Inspections of the property take place every three months, and tenants must agree to those. Usually the agent will take photos and send to the landlord. I would be wary of renting a place which is not managed by a property manager in a real estate agency. Some landlords try to manage it themselves, and lots of problems can arise. Best if tenants and landlords don't interact directly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loopylu Posted July 20, 2016 Share Posted July 20, 2016 Yes - rego is equivalent to road tax. There is a compulsory third party insurance that you have to pay for. Here is some information on this: Compulsory third party insurance is a statutory requirement when registering your vehicle in Australia. In most states CTP is a built-in registration component, however in Queensland, drivers have the option of choosing the provider with whom they wish to insure. Don’t forget, you can change your CTP provider when your registration is up for renewal too. If you’re interested in shopping around to see if you can potentially get better deal on your CTP cover, the Motor Accident Insurance Commission (MAIC) can assist you with access to their CTP Premium Calculator. There are 24 classes of vehicles all up, each insurance premium including levies, admin fees and GST, which is determined by the type of car and its use. Visit the Motor Accident Insurance Commission’s site to learn how you can change CTP providers. We got a no claims statement from Direct Line when we left the UK in 2008 and used it to prove no claims to our Australian insurer. Hope this helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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