Changing to individual water accounts

we are a community of 60 apt’s who currently run with a communal bill of around €16,000 pa

we are considering changing to individual water accounts, but we have been told this will cost approx €70k to implement the change, to me this doesn’t compute “over €1000 per apt to install a meter???

anyone got any true ideas on costing and experience of having this done.

we only have 12 full time residents and the other 48apts are holiday homes.

thanks for your help.

ian

I bought a villa 6 months back..the water meter had been removed..to get a new water meter fitted it cost €500 ..it took the fitter less than 10 minutes to complete the job...you said the community of 60 pay's a annual water bill of € 16,000 =266 per property ..this is extremely cheap as my individual meter rental  costs €45 every 2 months plus whatever water I use on top of this ..do the figures  yourself...you are getting a good deal ...if you are having problems with none payers surly you have the right as a community to cut the water off to none payers if this is problem.

This message was last edited by windtalker on 04/09/2019.

Yes it has always been considered a better deal, and it’s probably only a problem as it’s a large expense on the community’s accounts, thanks for the costs info.

My water bills are the same as windtalkers. The only negative I can see with your system is that the 12 full time residents are on what I would consider a deal that is unfair to those that only use their apartments for holidays. Perhaps you could propose a change at the AGM where they pay more to reflect the extra usage they would entail? (Obviously you could not work out how much extra they use, but an extra 10% would seem fair to me, and would reduce slightly the amount the rest of you pay)

Windtalker,

 Is your observation yet another instance where a conveyancing lawyer should have checked the details associated with an existing water meter being available, prior to purchase, and fully documented to act as security so that in the event of interim removal the purchaser is legally covered? 

Is it illegal to remove a water meter or is this considered part of the owners property that can legally be removed?

Likewise with all debts owed to the whole community..... this should be brought to the attention of the prospective purchaser prior to purchase shouldn’t it?

I wonder is this level of detail considered part of a conveyancing Lawyers’s due diligence?

Like the idea of a small surcharge for residents, we are also discussing a renta apt surcharge at our AGM on Friday thanks

Adds..the villa I bought was bought direct from the Bank ..it was sold as seen ... with no electricity / water meters fitted ..it quite easy to have them both reinstated ..cost €1,000 for both including legal fees to have the accounts set up..the price I paid for the villa reflected this out lay ..and this was taken in to consideration at point of purchase.

Good to know that you signed in full knowledge windtalker, but I still wonder if it is illegal to remove a water meter in Spain  or does it belong to the owner who paid for its installment?

The reason I ask is that in the UK the water meter does not belong to the owner of the property, indeed currently installation is free in many regions, and the current responsibility of its safety and maintenance is the respective utility company, so this may well not be known by those purchasing property in Spain.

This message was last edited by ads on 04/09/2019.

Hello ads, it is the same in Germany, all meters remain the property of the utility companies. The rent they charge for them is a good profit centre and also a good source of tax for the government.

Ian

At present you probably have in effect one pipe from the meter room going to each apartment, 

 I suspect the cost you have been quoted is because individual supply pipes will need to be installed from the meter room, where the water meter is now, to each apartment.  Resulting in a bank of meters in the meter room

Years ago when I changed 21 houses with a common supply to individual meters, the savings were considerable.  That was because the each supply was charged on a sliding scale.  The charge was a low rate for the first so many cubic metres, increasing number blocks.   Maybe first 5 cu metre were charged at 10 euros per metre, next 5 at 30 euros p.m, etc 

With just one supply, the bill being shared between 21 owners, we collectively paid for each block.  With 21 meters we each got the cheap block of water, so 21 times as much water at the cheapest rate and so on

This message was last edited by johnzx on 05/09/2019.