Huge Socamex Bill

My account was debited over €1000 today by Socamex.  My apartment has been empty and my usual bi-monthly bill is under €30. The water is turned off.

I know this has come up in previous threads, but can anyone who has managed to get this sorted please let me know what they actually did, and was their account credited with the overpayment.

I realise it's Easter holidays, but specifically I'm after the website to view bills, telephone number (preferably English service) and an e-mail address that will respond.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks 2lt,

I'll contact the guy and keep my fingers crossed.

Much appreciated.

Hi we are in Naranjos 8 and just presented with a 2000 euro bill for a leak which we can't see but is apparently under our property. Did you manage to dispute your bill. If so any tips that you can pass on.  Thx Alice

You need to report it to equivalent of ombudsman in Ayuntamiento, something like OCU.  How long are you here for?

We did dispute it however we were told by the very rude soxamax staff we would have to pay!!!

i was heartbroken as I know we did not have a leak or use that amount of water

sharon

Sharona,

when at Socamex & told you had to pay the bill, did you politely, but with a smile on your face, bend over & say mucho gracias amigo as they shafted you??

joking aside, this happens regularly, are you ground or first floor? If 1st did some clown turn the terrace tap on for you?

SD

Hi I was so gobsmacked 😡 I am on the ground floor.

Sharona

Level 2 Presidents will be looking into this water issue on Condado!

That will be fantastic.

We are also considering employing a company that specialises in finding leaks to give us an independent review of the situation. Our apartment is completely dry so it is difficult to see how we could be expected to be responsible for this.

Given the buildings are less than 10 years old we believe our property should be covered by some kind of Builders Guarantee. However Milenium advised that no insurances are valid following the demise of Polaris.

Last comment - I checked on the Annual AXA community cover that we bought via Milenium and flood damage for buildings is not covered only contents. So having adequate cover is is something we also need to discuss with our presidents.

Read the thread below from August 2014.

http://www.eyeonspain.com/community-forum/32710/massive-water-bill.aspx

The following is an extract from one of my posts:

This is the complaints procedure I followed.

1. Get a complaints form from Socamex office in Alhama. The e-mail is agarridom@socamex.com.es.  I used this to get my water bills.

2. Inform officer responsible for water supply in Alhama Town Hall.  Snr. Miguel Gonzalez.  His English is very limited but with my keyholder we were able to ascertain that Nica (apologies to her if mis-spelt) in Milleniun, was up to speed on the issues involved.  This was news to her, but she did fill out the complaints form in Spanish for us.  

3. Return to Socamex for them to respond to the complaint in a section on the same form. You'll need your water bills to show the meter readings.The guy was not very hopeful that anything would come of it because the actual meter readings were as stated on the bills so there was no obvious mistake. (meter removed and used elsewhere??)

4. Go to the local Guardia Civil in Alhama and get a Denuncia.  They speak no English whatsoever, so you need to speak some Spanish or have some help.

5. Take the complaints form and the Denuncia to the consumer department of the town hall. This is a different building again.  The form is in triplicate.  One for Socamex, one for Town Hall and one for you.

There you go. Simples.

Good luck.

To get anywhere with this we'll need an affected Spanish resident to take the lead.

The above procedure took several weeks to complete, and involved a huge amount of effort by myself and even more by my keyholder.  Months later I got a letter from the Ombudsman in Madrid, advising me to go to the EU in Brussels because it was nothing to do with them.  I lost the will to live and threw myself off the top of the Penthouses.  

Incidentally, the very helpful guy who works for Socamex, living on the Jardines, didn't respond to several e-mail requests for help.

I hate to say it, but Socamex won't stop shafting customres and stealing their money until a Spanish resident with clout gets involved.  Our Presidents have known about this scam for years. 

Good luck

keeve

I have only just become aware of it this week keeve but will be investigating it!!!

Some presidents may have known but not me..

Hi Chaddy.

I wish you well in your efforts to get to the bottom of this, but I fear you'll need to break down some doors to get anywhere. 

I am no longer an owner, having managed to sell my apartment last year. Believe me, Premium Bonds are less stressfull. What with the 'latest accounts' fiasco recently talked about (bulbgate and paellagate) and other issues, I'm pleased to say I will return as a renter at a small fraction of the cost I was shelling out every year as an owner.

All the best,

keeve

Not sure about Spain, but in UK all new builds must have a NHBC or similar insurance for 10 years & it is immaterial if the developer/builder goes bust as that should also be covered automatically as they have to pay a premium for each property they build; so it should make no difference if Polaris went to the wall as ML (wouldn't know if they have always been administrators as only been around since 2012 on CDA) should have made sure the warranties were still in place (& useable) as if potentially they have not laid the water supply pipes correctly, as is the case with some of the sewerage pipes & some of the pre-installed air-con pipes, as people are already aware then the warranty should be sorting it out. That is what it is there for. So someone needs to dig out this warranty & get it legally checked out as it may actually be worthless anyway!

SD

I've just checked my insurance through milenium and looks to me that flooding is covered. Fingers crossed for you

If you have a leak then you'll get huge bills every time. This isn't the case, so forget about looking for puddles. The large bills are random. A 2000 euro bill would cover the cost of filling a couple of swimming pools, so its no good looking at damp patches.

As for the 10 year guarantee?  Don't hold your breath on that one.  ML wouldn't even consider it when I broached the subject.  Remember Polaris and the so called bank guarantees?

Perhaps one of the presidents could tell us what's happening with the 10 year warranty, this was raised at the 2012 AGM along with the building book.  I understood that we were risking loosing the warranty unless we followed the building book checks which weren't being done?

Chaddyowl,

Any progress with your investigations?

keeve