ELECTRICITY METER TAKEN!!

Just received a mail from our Management Company advising us that our electricity meter has been taken for no apparent reason! We have paid all bills to date and cannot understand why they would do this! Has anyone else had their meter taken recently and can you let me know how they resolved the matter?

 Hello this has happenned several times to several owners.

Iberdrola will take their money from your bank, if there is not enough funds the bank dont pay and Iberdrola remove the meter.

To get it re-instated takes weeks? they dont respond very quickly. Most people go to the Iberdrola office in the port and sort and the owners i know ended up on holiday with no electric until the last few days?

The water company do the same if there is not enough funds. But they will re-instate water meter same day on payment of 50€ reconnection fee.

You can ask your management company to try to solve but it may require you taking your previous bills and sorting. One owner had a tiny baby with her but it did not make Iberdrola connect any quicker?

Problem with Iberdrola is they take their money every 2 months but it is difficult to predict there is no set date each time sometimes its only 6-7 weeks betwen bills othertimes it 8-9-10 weeks?

Some people forget when various standing orders are taken, and mis calculate the funds in their Spanish bank, this may not be your case but it usually is? 

There is a slim possibility that your meter was taken in error? this happens with the Water ones but have not known it with the electric meters.

There are many threads on this forum about these if you search the forum

Good luck
 

Also they take payment then send the bill?

Thanks we keep regular checks on our bank acount the funds were there but they havent collected since September! We are hoping it is nothing to do with Cambank being taken over and not releasing the funds for whatever reason! Hoping it was their error and they wil reinstate without cost. Our Management Company have been helpful and given us a number will try to get it sorted over the phone. Many thanks

This is a very common poblem and is normally related to an error in the original application paperwork

For the bank payment to go through the details on the standing order and the bank account must match EXACTLY, first and middle name, account number and NIE and passport number

People often get confused switching the first and second names so FIRST check the details on the original application paperwork

I pay ALL of my bills via CAM Bank, no poblems, but if there is an error on the original application it will be down to you and you will have to pay the back charges plus re-connection fee

The easiest way is to have somebody visit the offuces for you with all of the necessary paperwork and they can give them as immediate order to pay

Thanks but we have been paying Iberdrola from same account since we completed back in 2008 and with money in our account it must have been a mistake will let you know what happens when we can get through to them otherwise we will have to get someone to go in to sort it out for us as we arent out till mid feb. Thanks for the advice

Did you use a Solicitor when you completed on the property? We did and they sort our taxes out annually and as a result we have had  some minimal contact with them since purchasing but it did mean we felt we could email them for advice when a similar problem arose and they actually telephoned the company and resolved the issue for us. They made no charge for this- but we would have paid a few bob to get it sorted. Our fractured Spanish wasn't good enough to discuss this by phone and its difficult to ask a neighbour who you barely know to take on the responsibility. Some of the English speaking company staff actually have limited English too. Failing that I'd ask  your keyholder, if you have one, as they reside and probably have a better command of a bit of necessary Spanish  and are used to dealing with problems. Failing all this just keep on phoning them, the earlier in the day the better and ask for someone who speaks English 'Non Espanol, English por favor'

Its often just a matter of showing them the evidence of payments.

Patrick is correct regarding electricity and water as the pipes and meters have been connected wrongly in lots of cases and its only when someone defaults or an error occurs that this becomes apparent because the company turn everything off or remove the meter without contacting you first.

I hope you get this sorted soon I know how frustrating the situation is especially when you are not in the country.