Eye Watering Agua Factura AMJASA Javea

Hi,

Just had another HUGE bill from AMJASA for two months €519 for September - October!

Almost 200 cubic meters of water consumed or 200,000 litres.

House is let out for holiday persiods. But due to the fire, has only been occupied for 5 weeks rather than 8/9.

House is

3 bedroom, 2 bathroom. Sleeps 6. Dishwasher, washing machine and 8x4 Pool. Ver small irregation system for two tiny patches of grass.

June and July was €472.44

Shocked!

Any Advice welcome please?

Xabia

You have a leak. Get the pipes checked as that is about 10 times the amount you should be paying.

its quite easy to check if your water is leaking just look at the meter and you will see it slowly moving ,if it moves when all is turned off (taps etc) then you obv have a leak,these are quite common in Spain due to the plastic pipes used .I know of 3 properties on our urbanisation that have had this problem.

A very simple way of checking for water leak is to all the toilet flush tanks and so on at full then put your ear on one of the cold water taps and you will hear it .

If you can get to the water meter,  turn off all taps, and see if the meter is shows any water flow.  If there is, then see if the over flow is running on a toilet cistern, tap leaking etc.  

That's one heck of a leak. You could fill the pool several times, if my calculations are correct. I would expect to see the leak never mind hear it. Maybe someone else has tapped into your meter. Either that, or the fire service used your water to put out the fires. I would have expected a letter from the water company informing you of unusaul usage. I think I'd start by asking them to come check the meter. Good luck.

Another possibility is to check the reading in case the water company made a mistake when  they took the reading.

Thank you, meter was brand new in March 

meter was brand new in March 

It is I suppose vaguely possible it is defective,  or if it can be calibrated, then calibrated incorrectly.  However, a leak is probably the most likely explanation.

As Roberto says this sounds like a big leak

Is there an error on readings between new meter and old meter 

Suggest you contact the  water board and get them to investigate or ask a plumber to come take a look like most things the experts are the best to ask

We had similar from Codeur last month with our 1 bed apartment. 164 cubic metres and about 450€ bill!!! Codeur are coming to check the meter next week (and to make sure they have read the correct one!)

Mark

I had something similar once. About 300 cubic used while the house was supposedly uninhabited (its a holiday property). We discovered there was a defect in one of the WCs which meant the plunger thing wasn't working properly and water was continuously trickling down the drain.

The fontanero advised to always turn the water off at the mains valve when we're away for a longer period as there is no guarantee it won't happen again. We couldn't do that as the garden is irrigated. But we had him install a separate valve for the garden than for the house.

I have a feeling house & garden are supposed to have a seperate supply by law anyway. Anyone know?

Could  it be that your renters have left the pool filling and forgotten it?

this happened a few times round here, even with " professionals " looking after the pool.

easy to do if you're not keeping your eye on it and you go for a siesta!

Hi,

I also have very high water bills for my three bed villa and last year had to have a complete new pipe installed as my meter was still showing consumption with no everything turned off. Also the toilet overflow was running and is a common fault found to be causing high water bills.

The other main issue is the garden water system as the pipe work and plug points often allow too much water out. Check all your garden pipe work and replace if it has been down for sevral years.

We had a extra meter fitted to the outside tap to record the amount of water used to top up the pool and also had a lockable tap fitted so rental guests could not just turn it on.

If you have an outside shower, you must check the pipe work and if renting would suggest a push button type that only stays on for a few seconds.

I have a feeling house & garden are supposed to have a seperate supply by law anyway. Anyone know?

I don't know about the law. But many older properties predate present laws and I'm not aware of any requirement to retrofit. Quite apart from the question of how feasible this would be short of ripping everything out and starting afresh. I have several outbuildings and despite the best of my efforts to investigate I don't understand how the water gets there. My fontanero says not to worry. Old houses are like that.

Roberto wrote....I have a feeling house & garden are supposed to have a seperate supply by law anyway. Anyone know?

By law, one is supposed to only use irrigation for watering the garden . At a fraction of the price of mains water silly not to really.

Not sure what you mean by "irrigation" as opposed to "mains" water. Our irrigation system is fed by mains water, just the same as the water going into the cistern that feeds the apartments, and one community tap in the garage. Looking a the bills, both the meter for the garage tap, & the one for "piscina y jardines" are charged as "domestic agua". I can't immediately work out why, but the water for the "pool & gardens" appears to be charged at a higher basic rate. various service charges are identical - including basura, which seems a bit of a swizz, that the community are paying twice to have rubbish taken away.

The law that I'm thinking of is something to do with water used for gardens etc. being on a seperate supply, to avoid any possibility of back-wash (or whatever you call it) into the cistern that feeds individual homes. I remember something similar back in my murky past installing & plumbing in xray processing machines that held hazardous chemicals - there has to be some kind of one-way valve to prevent the possibility of cross-contamination. Any plumbers out there have an idea?!

Irrigation water comes from a completely different source and is paid to different supplier than main water. It is untreated water and carries the spores for Legionnaires disease so campo folk for whom, unfortunately, this is the only water supply have to be extra careful when showing.  The metered supply might come from wells or sewage farms and is used for the many fountains here. 

I am aware of the separate supply of cheaper and untreated water for irrigation in many parts.

But to use that you would first have to have a supply. I don't think it is available everywhere. When my house was built there was no mains supply at all but they had a massive concrete cistern under the house that (so says my 84 years old Spanish neighbour) was filled by a water truck that came by occasionally. The cistern could also be topped up by rainwater from the roof. This was long before my time but the cistern is still there, akbeit disused. Later a mains supply was installed and this has been creatively added to over the yearrs.

Now that you mention the backwash thing, I recall that my fontanero did install a valve on my garden supply. I never really thought about the purpose of this but it might well be what you describe.