Hi we are looking at buying a property that is not on mains electricity. Please advise if anyone has had experience of problems/ costs of this being added on later by the Spanish councils? Thank you in advance

You may wish to ask for a quote from the electric company.

This.

Absolutely, definitely do this before you sign anything!

Why is the property not on the mains?

Depending on the property location it could cost Tens of Thousands!!!

Hi thank you for your reply. The property details just say it's got solar panels, with a backup generator and its not on mains electricity. The estate agents has offered to send us details of houses with mains electricity, so we are having a rethink.

Regards

Hola

Decree 2/2012 in Andalucia confers rights to Electricity for homes outside of a town plan. However it is a double edged sword and proper legal advice should be sought.

Living on solar energy is not easy but can be managed - what sort of life do you want?

Davexf

I know someone who had mains at the bottom of his garden which was about 50m from his front door.

It still cost several 10's of thousands to get connected.

Someone else grouped up with all his neighbours and they all agreed to pay the 40k that Iberdrola had quoted. Several years on and still nothing had happened so they all gave up and installed gas fridges, solar panels etc.

Hi Dave/ Snikpoh thank you for a replies.

Hi Dave

We want a simple life in Spain leaving in countryside but near enough to a Spanish city to visit it easily.

Hello Elizabeth. We live the simple life in the sort of property/situation you describe. We have no mains services at all. However, properties not too far away have mains electricity and the supply is very close to us. We contacted the electricity company twice, and didn't even get a reply. We're very happy with our off-grid life and it is wonderful have no bills AT ALL (except "council tax" which is minimal). A gas bottle (about 12 euros) for the fridge lasts about 5 weeks, and much, much longer for the cooker and water heater. Apart from that, it's just a gallon of petrol here and there for the generator to bring up the water and, very occasionally in bad weather, to top up the solar batteries.

We have solar panels and solar water heating. We only use gas for cooking and for a boiler that is used for the times the solar water isn't hot enough. The fridge and anything else also works from the solar.
The only problem we have is heating in the winter. It'd be nice to be connected to the mains for that but we were quoted also tens of thousands to be connected. So we've not bothered.