Massive Water Bill

Hi all,

I know this has been an issue for a few people on Condado before but I have just recieved a water bill from Socomex for 484 Euros. I havent changed my bank and payments for the last 4 years have been fine. I have emailed them but had 2 bounce backs and have also emailed Mileniun to see if they can help.

Has anbody rectified such an issue and got a credit back? Any help would be gratefully received?

Thanks in advance,

Tez

Tez,

I receieved a bill for E1030 for a period when my apartment was empty. My keyholder is aware of several similar instances, one for E1500. There is a rather complicated complaints procedure, which I am currently working through, and I will post here when done, probably tomorrow. You need to be here and have help. At the end of the day the complaint may be simply filed, but if enough of us act, who knows. 

Thanks for the info. I'll consider legal action if I don't get a response. Do you have an initial email contact for them?? And presume they did not continue to bill at that rate? Were Mileniun any help?

This is becoming a VERY regular occurence with SOCAMEX...............not only with owners on urbanisations, but with Spanish people in the campo. My neighbour (Spanish) was billed over €1000 above his normal amount!!!!!!!

This occurence never happened with Urbaser - so what are Socomex up to?

Put in a large bill and hope no-one notices......

Never mind the complaints system they have put in place to confuse people..........

Take it to the "Defensor del Pueblo" - the equivalent of the UK ombudsman.

Socomex are taking the "piss" and need to be brought into line!!!!

Some of these bills have been caused by stolen water meters being used at a car wash!!  Haven't heard latestbut the resident concerned was initially told it was her problem...will try to get update!,

Surely we should expect cases of that nature to be the problem of the community, specifically site security and Milleniun management of community issues. It is not fair for an individual resident to be left out in limbo in a case like this. It is not like you can do anything extra to protect your meter boxes as we do not hold the keys to these boxes and would probably not be allowed to 'beef up' the latches & locks.

Regards,

I agree beef up all the boxes for security on both electric and water, it will be too late when a child puts his hand in the electric cupboard

Tez, All, 

This is the complaints procedure I followed.

1. Get a complaints form from Socamex office in Alhama. The e-mail is agarridom@socamex.com.es.  I used this to get my water bills.

2. Inform officer responsible for water supply in Alhama Town Hall.  Snr. Miguel Gonzalez.  His English is very limited but with my keyholder we were able to ascertain that Nica (apologies to her if mis-spelt) in Milleniun, was up to speed on the issues involved.  This was news to her, but she did fill out the complaints form in Spanish for us.  

3. Return to Socamex for them to respond to the complaint in a section on the same form. You'll need your water bills to show the meter readings.The guy was not very hopeful that anything would come of it because the actual meter readings were as stated on the bills so there was no obvious mistake. (meter removed and used elsewhere??)

4. Go to the local Guardia Civil in Alhama and get a Denuncia.  They speak no English whatsoever, so you need to speak some Spanish or have some help.

5. Take the complaints form and the Denuncia to the consumer department of the town hall. This is a different building again.  The form is in triplicate.  One for Socamex, one for Town Hall and one for you.

There you go. Simples.

Good luck.

To get anywhere with this we'll need an affected Spanish resident to take the lead.

Thanks for the detail. One major concern I have is are you still getting large water bills? Ie if the meters have been moved or tampered with? Did Mileniun check to make sure they haven't been tampered with (as I believe they have access as the meters are in locked cupboards?).

Have we considered a collective legal action - would be good to try and collate how many people on here have been affected so far?

Tez,

I have had one bill following the E1030 one, and this was E26, back to normal.

I'm in the Penthouses and there is a meter room on the ground floor.  Milleniun and Security have access.  We put it to Milleniun that the meter could have been moved and used elewhere but they insisted this would never happen.  I can't think of any other explanation as the meter is supposed to be tamper proof.  The volume of water I got billed for would fill one of the swimming pools.  

On top of this of course is that my account was cleaned out and I defaulted on other direct debits.

That explains how they are keeping the lakes topped up!

Thanks for the info. I'm also in the Penthouses. Ill PM you my details so we can keep in touch.