Where Tiaki Wai stops and you start
Upper Hutt is the one city in the Tiaki Wai area with a published toby rule. The point of service for water is the toby, the shut-off valve on or close to your street boundary. Tiaki Wai maintains the network up to and including it; all water plumbing after it is the owner's. A leak inside the home or on the section is usually yours to fix, while one coming from the main or beyond your boundary may be Tiaki Wai's.
Stormwater follows a similar line. The council's point of service is the junction on its main, or the road kerb if your pipe drains there, and every drain upstream of it belongs to the property. The council keeps no records of private drains. Only rainwater may go into a stormwater drain.
Upper Hutt facts worth knowing
Frost on the valley floor
NIWA's Wallaceville station, in the sheltered Upper Hutt valley, averages 54.0 ground frosts and 24.1 air frosts a year. Kelburn, in Wellington city, averages 10.5 ground frosts and no air frosts.
Owner-occupied homes
At the 2023 Census, Upper Hutt City had 16,839 occupied homes and 66.3% of households owned theirs, against 54.9% nationally. Heat pumps (68.6%) and wood burners (29.8%) were the most common heating.
No tsunami zone, other hazards
WREMO says Upper Hutt is the only district in the region with no tsunami risk, though earthquakes, storms, flooding and landslides still apply. The Te Mārua treatment plant here also supplies Porirua, parts of Lower Hutt and western Wellington.
Pipe work under way
Tiaki Wai is replacing the water and wastewater pipes under the Tōtara Park Road bridge, due to finish around January 2027, and notifies short shutdowns first. It also plans lower water pressure in parts of Upper Hutt during 2026/27.
Before you book a plumber in Upper Hutt
- Find the toby near your street boundary and make sure it turns off.
- Water escaping on the street side of the toby? That's for Tiaki Wai: 0800 TIAKI WAI (842 549).
- Fixing a rain tank to the house, garage, fence or retaining wall makes it more likely to stay upright in a quake, the council says.
- Tank going anywhere other than solid ground? Ask the council about consent first on (04) 527-2169.
More for the Hutt Valley homes
Next door: Lower Hutt and Wainuiomata. Across the region: hot water cylinders, emergency plumbers and drainlayers. For a slow, hidden leak, see leak detection.
What we would do
Thinking about an outdoor cylinder or a heat pump water heater? Tell the tradie how frosty your section gets and exactly where the unit would sit. Wallaceville gets several times the frosts central Wellington does, and how that suits a given model is for an authorised Upper Hutt plumber to judge on site.