huge water bills

We are on garden 7, Naranjos, and last year received a water bill over the Winter period for 500Euros, compared to an average 40euros. We never visit over the winter period and did not rent out. Luckily we spotted this with our on-line bank account from the UK and had sufficient monies within the Spanish bank account. However despite having many conversations with Anna, etc in the Office in Condado when we landed; their sending an email and taking photos of the neighbour's water meter readings within the same "box", we did not make any inroads into having this resolved.  Ladies in the Office in Condado just shrugged and said Socamex have the final word.  In effect, our bill would have assumed we had taken it upon ourselves to fill the entire pool in garden 7.  A very expensive lesson. That said, we naively had not turned the water off at source but will not be caught out again like this.  On our garden alone, we know of at least 2 others, all on the same side in the block with similar problems. 1 of these families  resident,  have received a bill in the 200-300 Euros area, and they are of the opinion you get nowhere. Just pay up, you are in Spain, don't forget.  Someone, somewhere in Socamex must be having beautiful properties built at the expense of the owners. It's a disgrace.

Sorry to hear about your troubles.  

With this in mind....how do we get access to read our meters?  It appears padlocked. 

TIA

Go to the office in Al Kazar and they will organise for a security guard to meet you and you can read your meter, take photos for proof. Hope this helps.

Hi all,

I have posted on here last week about the same issue. And an owner has kindly advised of the Socomex complaints procedure. I had a bill for 500 Euros recently. This seems to be a common occurance and I have been trying to collate a list of all the people who this has happened to. Please PM me your details.

I can then keep you posted about my progress and then perhaps take to the presidents and Mileniun to fix - its a disgrace. If you were paranoid you may think they are using our water for irrigation......

I found myself in a similar situation earlier this year but i was ultimately suprised to be informed by Millenium the week before my bill that I should expect a significant one; €750.

I subsequently requested Millenium to resolve this issue as they for some reason had been informed prior to the receipt of my bill and I therefore found them culpable of fraud as the only persons who have access to my property in my absence are themselves or their subcontrators. I offered them my Spanish solicitor details and that was the last I heard of the issue and no monies were taken!

Hi I had a bill for €1000!!!!! Even though I was not at Condado for months. I went to the Socamax office in Alhama and millennium, no one could help which I found offensive and totally at a loss so I had to pay it!!! We must do something about this, no wonder people get fed up :(      Sharon

Hi Malbert, could you provide me with your Spanish lawyers details please. I'm going to at least start the ball rolling if I can. At the moment Mileniun have taken a picture of the meter and Socomex have confirmed the reading as correct. So I'm trawling through bills to ensur they all stack up. They claim that there must be a leak, which there isn't. From your comments it does sound like foul play is at hand...

A vice president on one of the Jardins works for Socamex. Is there anyone who knows him able to enlist his help? Can L1 help? Definitely something fishy going on and it's being ignored by our Administrators.

If there was a leak then either the water should be spotted and a report made and you wouldnt just get 1 bad reading if there was no repair made. It certainly smeels very fishy. All I can suggest is that everyone turns off their control taps before vacating and if a large bill comes along then take it to milenium with your solicitors details as reporting to socamex seems to be falling on deaf ears.

Hi I tried to contctvthevperson that works for Socamax but I got no reply!! Sharon 

Slightly different but related subject, feel sorry for the poor couple on N5 who have now been left with a potential huge water bill after some mindless & clearly unsupervised teenagers left their solarium tap on for 48 hours (we believe at about 3am) & has flooded the below 3 apartments. So affecting lots of people!

SD 

Sharona, I e-mailed him 3 times - nothing.

SD, it's so important to have your keyholder turn off the water at the meter after you've left.  This must be done in conjunction with security.  If you can secure your meter to prevent its removal then all the better.

I've been through the complaints procedure I outlined below - nothing yet. No surprise there.  My bill following the huge one was normal, so it's not a meter fault. So where did my swimming pool volume of water go?  Probably in the swimming pool!!

No problems under Urbaser but regularly under Socamex.  Speaks volumes to me (no pun intended). Who's nicking the water??!!  How can ML ignore this when it's happening to so many?

Re n5, how can we blame unsupervised teenagers....noone seems to have seen them??  I was up at friends in n5 till 2am saturday night and there was noone about!  Just curious where the story started that it was teenagers????

There arent any teenagers in n5 at present...that I know of, if someone saw these teenagers surely we can identify them????

Denise,

we saw teenagers & younger cycling around til nearly 2am! The same I had to remind some early teens the other day about blatantly wasting pool shower water whilst the parents sat idly by also at the pool?

apparently the victims seem to know who they are & from a conversation I had with people yesterday who should be in a position to know they have been causing problems in another 3 gardens at least.

people, renters or owners, need to be more respectful of the serene surroundings we afford ourselves on CDA?

SD