builder's electricity

This is a bit long, so sit back....we are a blck of 27 apartments, 5 still to be sold.  We paid E1500 to the developer to cover costs of water and electricity whilst on builder's supply.  The builder has to buy some land to put a transformer on, which is is going to share with two other developers.  He has now decided tht he cannot afford to pay for this and wants money off us and wants more money for electricity as until he can get the transformer up and running it has to stay on his supply.  The original E1500 also covered the cost of having the meter installed, which he is now saying we also have to pay for.  Just wondering where we stand as we don't want the electricity cut off, but as he still has apartments to sell, we are hoping that it wouldn't be in his best interest to have that happen.  It has now also come to light that not everyone paid the E1500, but some of us had to pay it on completion.  Any help/ideas gratufully received.

Alyson

Alyson

You don't say whereabouts you are living.  Is it in the middle of nowhere?  We bought an apartment in a block on the edge of Jumilla, and were on builder's electricity and water for over 6 months in the case of their electricity and over 3 months for the water.  They never asked us for any money during that period.  We were given a Boletín de Instalaciones for the water and for the electricity, which we took along to our local water company and to Iberdrola, when we signed for mains water and electricity.  We paid Iberdrola, not the builder, for the meter etc.

Also, did you pay €1,500 each?  What period of time does it cover?  It seems a lot, depending on what he charged for the meter. Not all of the apartments in our block have been sold either, though we think most of them must have been, because they have started building more at the end of the block.

What do others think?

Sue

Hi

We were also on builders electric/water for over 12 months,and we paid 1400e up front to the builder,an he was putting in the meters,and getting out Habitation license,but GUESS what, we had to arrange our Habitation and the meters,but we have a good community,we all stuck together,and sorted it out.He also tried to get more money out of us,but didnt get anywhere.The builder just took as all for a ride,and still owes our community money.

Get your own water and Electric ASAP would be the best advise anyone could give you

 Alysonwenham:

Search on the planning problem behind all this. Are there work/habitation licenses in place?

My understanding is that it's illegal to charge for electricity or water supplied by the constructor.

Guslopez:

Yes, it is illegal.

Why?

Obvious answer: because that should never happen. 

The same fact of just habitating a house without proper habitation license ( whatever the reason for this is: most likely lack of the correponding licenses) is illegal and can actually bring a fine by the administration to the habitant.

You may find this article interesting reading: http://www.eyeonspain.com/spain-magazine/licence-first-occupation.aspx

So charging for an illegal activity provoked by your own illegal acts is criminally illegal.

What is the best option then? never to habitate a house without FOL and make the corrsponsing claims against developer/bank involved.

It should never happen but it does.

Some made the decision to complete as developer was on verge of collapse or whatever and to work together as a community to deal with outstanding issues to secure water & electricty supply.

Sometimes these house have the first occupation licence but there is unresolved issues with the water and/or electricity company and the bolitins to secue connection or need to set up community first etc. Sometimes bolitins are out of date or infrastucture because of delay needs updating (ie meter housing boxes etc).

Sometimes it happens where say 10 complete on a development of 50 to 60 houses. They accept things are not as promised - gardens not landscaped etc but what is the alternative if they have already waited years and have no bank guarantee etc

It's either a case of bad dream or nightmare but still years of struggle to get everything sorted.

But I have seen such communities work together to take on these tasks ..... and come through.

 Faro:

I totally agree with you. Best option is for communities to work together. We are in times of co-work and co-llabor-ation. 

http://www.eyeonspain.com/blogs/costaluz/726/coworking.aspx

Yes, let´s make the dream come true for the benefit of all. Again, for a co-mmun good. It is much more fun!

Maria

And what about the people living in houses with no Habitation Licence but are connected to mains water & electricity (there are many of them).  They also pay local taxes for rubbish disposal etc.    One could argue that these utility companies are 'charging for an illegal activity', as without the HL they should never have been connected. 

This message was last edited by Suzie on 02/03/2011.

Hi Alyson,

There's some good advice on this thread, but it's still a difficult situation. 

I was one of those in the position outlined earlier - I initially refused to complete until the HC was available, but then found myself obliged to do so to protect the stage payments made as the builder was thought to be financially vulnerable.  3 years later still no HC, but the Community is now in the control of the owners and progress is finally being made.

Without knowing the detail of your situation it is difficult to comment.  But most certainly it is vital that the owners band together and confront the builder as one entity.   Good legal advice is hard to find in Spain, but this is a good board to get some pointers. 

I get very annoyed whenever someone says "this is Spain" as if one has to just accept a daft situation.  In my mind the worst of these is the Spanish legal "system" which is an absolute disgrace.  Your builder will know that he can get away with whatever he wants.  But regardless I would say that you still need to jointly employ a lawyer, or you will just be blackmailed.

On our urb we tried everything - getting help from the British Ambassador in Madrid, MEPs, local police, town hall, demonstrations etc but all of limited value.  Progress was only really made when we negotiated with the builder, backed up with legal advice.

Good luck