04 Jun 2012 5:35 PM:
We have a nightmare scenario with our new locale (though not so new now - bought it in Sep 2011 but still have the initial problems).
We bought it as a repossession from CAM Bank. As a large company we believed in their integrity (stupidly we know now) and assumed (because they told us) that we had connection to water, i.e. we had seen all plumbing in place in the locale. When we tried to connect after we bought we were told by Aquagest that there was an agreement between Aquagest and the urbanisation community that they would not connect us until an outstanding bill had been paid to the community.
On further investigation we established the following:-
The community (of around 17 properties, several are locales) used to have water from a local well. Several years ago it was decided to install an infrastructure for public water and everybody had to pay an amount depending on the size of their property. The well was de-commissioned. The community paid Aquagest the total amount to do the works. Some owners, including the previous owners of our building) did not pay for various reasons. Afterwards, for other reasons, CAM bank repossessed the property and took on ownership of the debt. They subsequently sold the property to us, stating in the escritura that there was no debt. Note that legally (we have had good advice on this) the debt was not against the property but against the individual and what with statutes, time lapses, etc. the debt remains with CAM - definitely not passed to us.
However, somehow the administrator of the community managed to broker an agreement with aquagest that they would not install a meter to our property until this debt was paid. The community do not care who pays the debt, indeed they are hoping we will do so for a quiet life. However we have been absolutely bled dry by all of the other costs we had to pay because of mis-selling by CAM (electricity etc.) and we simply cannot afford the €5000ish amount that is required. Our legal advice is that the agreement between the community and aquagest is illegal, but Aquagest refuse to entertain us and stonewall us at their office. It is also interesting to note that our administrator is Spanish, is a member of the local council and in charge of the local police and likes to have his fingers in many pies. He has a lot of clout with the local authorities, hence the stonewalling when we visit them.
So basically Aquagest are refusing to connect us to mains water because our community has an outstanding debt with a third party. We cannot understand how this is legal. We only want connection to the water supply and are happy to pay our bills, but cannot and will not pay an outstanding debt owned by somebody else that we knew nothing about. It should also be noted that we have tried time and again to contact CAM with regard to this - they ignore everything including the notary papers we served on them. Our only recourse is to take them to court but then we are back to the €5000 as we need to put up a large bond to do this - I presume this is what they bank on (excuse the pun!) to fob off people to whom they owe money .
Do our civil rights entitle us to receive water, regardless of the agreement in place? Any advice would be gratefully received.
Thnak you.
Thread:
Aquagest will not connect us as new owners
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