Water/Electricity Connection Charges

Hi all

I am about ready to complete. My builder has sprung a surprise on me in that he says he wants about 1200 Euros for the  service connection charges. As far as I can see he has wired into the board sited adjacent the front door and we are talking about a 10 metre distance from the street which is well established.  The water comes from the main in the street.

This seems a lot of money to me, but I raised this on our message board for Gran Mirador and   it transpires another buyer is facing the same issues, only worse!  Can anyone shed any light on these charges....what is the norm or does it vary?

Any advice much appreciated as I don't fancy trying to enquire the situation with the service companies.

Thanks

Hi dealerjm

Have not seen you on here before, so welcome to EOS.

Somewhere on this forum, is a thread dealing with your question.

For fear of poting repetative things, I will try to find it for you and come back here to point you in the right direction ok?

Bear with me!

Regards,

Hi dealerjm

Found it!

Took a while but got there in the end............................(Justin, where's that blinkin' search engine? can't help new members if it takes a week to find the link!!!)

Whoops, soory back to the pont in question dealerjm!

take a look at this thread, you may be able to chat with these members and share experiences

 http://www.eyeonspain.com/Secure/ForumPosts.aspx?thread=164&dev=FB28&name=Utilities%20in%20Spain

Kind regards,

Hi Fibby

I would be interested to know more about the builders charges. As you know have completed yes soooooooooo excited. Apparently we are on builders water and electric until development is finished. Will I be having a back dated payment do you think? I know the builder paid for connection charges but we are waiting also for the refund for his mortgage cancellation which my solicitor we disputed but the Halifax were having none of it and insisted we had to pay it but have it in writing that will be refunded. Any help much

Ginao appreciated.

Hi Gina,

You said " I would be interested to know more about the builders charges ".

I seriously don't think anyone OTHER than those buying a place where you've bought can answer as each builder has his own way of fleecing you, sorry dealing with this ! We are currently expecting fun & games on our urb as our builder will shortly be removing his water & there's talk of money for this, money for that yet he had almost 520 € off us on completion for "provision of water" leading us to believe this covered all water he supplied us till mains was sorted & meters & connections yet, as soon as we'd completed April 2005, he insisted (in May) we cough up a further 70 € for water &, when phase 1 say no way, he cut off their supply till the community agreed they'd HAVE to pay him it. THEN he decided THAT only covered us for 12 months so he levied ANOTHER 40 € on us for 6 months THEN another 40 € for 6 months which will take us up to May, by which time we SHOULD be on mains water.

It's really anyones guess what will happen. What SHOULD happen is a totally different story. I've heard SO MANY STORIES. Fibby, I understand, was treated fairly by her builder. You, too, could be lucky.

Janice

Janice, correct me if I'm wrong (I KNOW you will!) but the charges you are talking about are for the usage UNTIL you get (got?) your own meter connected. It sounds as though Gina may be in a similar position i.e. at the mercy of the developer until getting your own meters for water & leccy.

It's been said dozens of times elsewhere in other threads, but I'll say it again for the benefit of anyone who's just jumped into this one - NEVER complete without the First Occupation Licence. And if you DO have the licence, the developer should also be able to provide you (at least within a short period of time) with the "boletins" to present to the utility companies, and get yourself connected. This is obviously preferable to being in a position where you could be cut off by the developer at any time, or indeed paying him whatever he asks for, just to keep the water running.

(BTW, where I bought 3 years ago, we were on builders elec & water for 6 months - yes, I completed without the licence  .....but were never charged a cent - lucky us!)

Gina, if you want to know more about the connection charges for your own supply, have a look at the "utilities" thread. (Fibby put a link to it in her post below).