How do you query a bill/report a possible leak with Aguas de Murcia (EMUASA)?

Just received a bill for the last 2 months for €700+ even though I've not  been in Spain for this period!

Previous 2-monthly bills, even for the Summer months when the property is fully occupied have been €85 at most, so either they've made a major administrative error or I have a leak (thankfully the stop-cock is off inside the house).

Does anyone know the process for querying a bill/reporting a possible leak and contact details to do this (English speaking)?

Thanks.

Hi Jogary - I googled it for you and here is the link

http://www.emuasa.es/index.asp?Centro%20de%20Atenci%F3n%20Telef%F3nica

They have a "customer care centre" and the website is in English so you can ring their number and report the problem.  It is not a premium rate number too, which is a nice surprise!

A friend of mine didn´t know she had a burst mains pipe until she got a huge bill, although Aguagest did leave her a note (in the mailbox which she never uses) to say that they suspected a leak due to the high consumption.  The leak was under the road so there was no water showing anywhere, but she had to pay for the water and the repair to the road and then fight it out with her insurers.

It is always good to have someone local with keys in this type of situation and they can at least go and have a look at the meter for you to see if the reading is accurate.

Good luck!

I think if the leak is on your side of the meter it is your problem.

My mother had a similar situation in UK .  Anglia Water, reduced the bill by removing the part which related to water going into the drains, but she had to pay the rest.

Thanks Claire.

I've asked my keyholder to check for any signs of a leak and check the actual meter readings (if they can get into the box). With the water shut off to the house then it's only a 3m stretch of pipe from the road to our property where the leak could occur, so I'm hoping they just made a mistake on the reading!

Will let you know what happens....

 Do you know if it is a reading or an estimated bill ? If it is an estimated bill then get your key holder to take the reading and then go with it to the local office and they should adjust the bill accordingly. I have done this several times for owners who have had exceedingly high bills  €1000 plus from Endessa., they have then received the adjusted bills within a few days.

Hi Lorraine,

Our keyholder has now switched-off the main stopcock next to the water meter, so this will prevent any further wasteage/cost for now.

Regarding the bill and what the meter actually says (previous bills figures included for clarity):

Bill          Previous reading     Latest reading     Used (cubic m)

April          267                           282                        15

June         282                           521                      239

Actual meter reading yesterday was 925000.

My keyholder took a look at their meter reading and latest bill and told me the following:

Previous reading on bill      230

Latest reading on bill           262

Meter reading                2620000 (yes that's an extra zero to our meter's reading)

These 2 figures seem to correlate, unlike ours?!

Can anyone shed any light on how the figure on the meter relates to what you see on actual bills?

Thanks. 

This message was last edited by jogary on 05/07/2012.

Looks to me as if the leak has worsened and your next bill will be even higher if those meter readings are accurate and yours.

If it is now completely turned of before the meter check again in a week to see if the meter has stopped moving.

One of our residents got a bill for over €700 and then €1600 the following period as the leak got worse as time went on, it was in his garden, he was not a resident and it was not possible to spot where the leak was despite the large amount of water that was leaking.

Barry

Have just received this reponse from Aguas de Murcia:

'In relation to the invoice of 239m3 is to inform you that we have carried out onsite inspection in the housing, the reading is correct and there are no break. Please find enclosed report. The swimming pool is full.'

Here's the report provided, roughly translated as 'at the time of the inspection is not appreciated break, and housing no one, have swimming pools and is full, he accompanied the reading photography' - so are they saying there definitely isn't a leak?

 Have found the explanation for this enormous water bill, thankfully it's been caused by human error rather than mechnical fault.

The 'reserve' pool maintainer who took over responsibility whilst my usual person was away in May left the pool pump on rapid fill for several days - this only came to their attention when one of my neighbours noticed an overflowing pool and flooded garden!!!

If there was ever a D'oh! moment.....

This person has now come clean over what happened so I'm now in the process of recovering the water bill costs from them - hopefully their conscious will get the better of them so I won't need to go down a more formal route.