Electricity charges vary across different residential land lease communities. In around 40 per cent of these communities, the operator supplies electricity to the residents through a network within the community rather than the residents being supplied and billed directly by a licensed retail electricity company. If you live or work in one of these communities, we’d like to hear from you.

In a residential land lease community, you own or rent the home you live in, but the land is leased from the community operator. More than 35,000 people live on permanent sites in over 500 caravan and residential parks across NSW.

The Department of Customer Service is reviewing the laws under the Residential Land Lease Communities Act 2013 and invited public feedback from December 2020 to March 2021.

We asked for comment on three options for how people living in residential land lease communities could be charged for electricity. Your feedback raised concerns about the current method being too complex and that it doesn't allow community operators to recover any costs of managing the supply of electricity to residents. Feedback did not show strong support for the alternative options.

For more information on the earlier review, please visit the consultation page.

New options for electricity charging

After considering several other policy options, we are now asking for your feedback on setting the maximum amount that a resident in a land lease community may be charged for electricity at the median market price. This could be achieved through:

• a single charge method that combines usage and supply charges
• a separate charges method with separate usage and supply charges.

For more detail read our case studies in the tabs below showing how the new options apply in different scenarios.

Tell us what you think

You can have your say by completing the quick poll or the survey.

Thank you for your feedback

This engagement closed on 16 August 2021. Thank you to participants for providing your input.

To see the consultation findings, read the report on the Residential (Land Lease) Communities Act 2013 Statutory Review. You can also read the written submissions in the Submissions box on the right-hand side of this page.

Your feedback contributed to changes in the way operators and third-party suppliers can charge for electricity.

From 25 September 2024, operators and third-party suppliers can only charge up to a set price for electricity that they sell to residents in communities with electricity embedded networks.

This change ensures residents in communities with electricity embedded networks:

• have clarity and certainty about how much they can expect to pay for their electricity

• are not paying excessive electricity charges when compared with residents in communities without an embedded network.

It also allows operators to recover the costs of maintaining and administering their electricity embedded networks.

The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) will set the maximum prices for each distribution district, at least once every 12 months.

Access the NSW Fair Trading website for IPART’s determination of the median retail market offer applicable from 25 September 2024.

The NSW Fair Trading website has more information on the electricity pricing reforms.

Consultation informed the statutory review of the Residential Land Lease Communities Act 2013 (the Act). Twenty-one of the 48 recommendations made by that review are implemented by the Residential (Land Lease) Communities Amendment Act 2024 (the Amendment Act). The Amendment Act was passed by Parliament on 21 June 2024, and changes come into effect in September and December 2024.

The changes include:

• improving clarity and transparency for residents in relation to site fees increases

• setting a new price cap for electricity pricing in communities with embedded networks

• introducing new utility billing requirements

• clarifying the rights and obligations of residents and operators (for example, homeowners can install door screens and window locks without the operator’s consent)

• enhancing emergency procedure testing requirements

• requiring operators to give notice of development applications and planning proposals they intend to lodge

• improving voluntary sharing arrangements

• increased notification time for ending an agreement where a residential site cannot be used as a residence anymore.

The new laws except the utility billing requirements will start on 25 September 2024.

The utility billing requirements (for example issuing a bill for utility charges at least once every three months) will start on 11 December 2024.

More information is on the New laws for residential land lease communities page on the NSW Fair Trading website.

This consultation is for NSW Fair Trading, Department of Customer Service.

Have your say consultations are run by the NSW Department of Customer Service (McKell Building, 2-4 Rawson Place, Haymarket NSW 2000).

We are interested in hearing from the community and will use the information we collect from you to help develop the programs and services that NSW Government provides.

We are collecting only minimal personal information from you. We may collect basic information like your name and contact details, if you choose to provide them. You may provide some personal information in response to questions that we ask you. For example, we may ask you about your experiences or opinions about a particular topic.

Having your say is voluntary and you are not legally required to provide any personal information to us. For some consultations, though, you will not be able to have your say unless you agree to include your personal information.

If you do provide personal information to us, you have a right to access it, and can ask us to correct it if it is wrong.

We may share personal information you provide with other parts of the Department of Customer Service (for example, with our Data Analytics Centre) so that we can conduct analysis across all consultations and refine our engagement methodology.

Where we conduct a consultation on behalf of a partner agency, we would usually share the information that we collect with that agency. Partner agencies for each consultation are listed on the webpage for that consultation.

For privacy information about your use of the NSW Government website generally, please see the NSW Government’s website privacy statement.

You can contact our Privacy Coordinator by calling 13 77 88 or by emailing Privacy@customerservice.nsw.gov.au.