Water bills - what to expect
 

Being a newbie I would like to know what I should expect to pay for water bills. Since April this year I seem to have paid roughly 30 euros a month to giahsa. I have a 3 bed duplex on ME. I received bills in the post box for april, may and june but nothing since then. Last month I was debited 38 odd euros. Whether they actually read the meter I dont know. Maybe after six months they read the meter and update their earlier estimates. As an owner we do not have access to read our water meter located in the locked cabinets. I looked online to see if I could register to read / receive bills onliine, but could not see this as an option. Assuming we will not occupy the apartment much until spring and consumption could be NIL, can anyone suggest what the bills might be please? I'm guessing there is an element of standing charges based on the property, rather than purely on water consumption.

Thanks, keith

Re: Water bills - what to expect
 

We have a 2 bed on LE. standing charge is 9.89 per bill - so every 2 months. Ave bill is approx 30 euro's and we visit most months. Standing charges are always the largest elements of the bill. You can read your meter of your caretaker has a key. Perhaps your community president will know this?

Re: Water bills - what to expect
 

In our block on Las Encinas the cupboard is left unlocked. In the event of a leak in any apartment you need instant access to turn off the water to the relevant property

Re: Water bills - what to expect
 

If you have a direct debit set up through a Spanish bank then your bills are visible via the virtual office on Giahsa's website.

We have closed our Spanish bank account and now pay all our bills by other means. In the case of Giahsa we pay the monthly bill by credit card through the Tributeria website (sgth.es). We have to email the Tributeria each month and ask them to reply with a copy of the latest bill. This gives us the unique payment reference number to enable online payment. Alternatively, if we are in Spain when the bill is due we can take the paper bill to the Tributeria office in Ayamonte and pay in person.

As UK residents we were perplexed when our Spanish bank account was embargoed due to a Tributeria cock up. When the IBAN International payments were introduced we decided to dispense with the Spanish bank account and now successfully pay all our bills by other means (water, leccy, IBI, deemed rental income and insurance).

Re: Water bills - what to expect
 

Thanks for that, I have managed (eventually) to register online and have gained sight of all my bills this year. It seems that if you use no water the bill still comes to 25 odd euros, this being the base of (standing) charges. Even if I use a load of water it still only goes to about 33 euros. Whether the base charge is calculated on the fiscal value of 161,294 euros or some other means I've yet to discover. There must be some difference of the base charge between say a one bed flat and a big detached villa ???? I just have not worked it out yet. Its as clear as MUD !!

Keith

Re: Water bills - what to expect
 

I understood that the standard bill was for a standing charge plus a minimal usage fee, so you are paying for some water even if you are not there. Hence why it only goes up a small amount when you are over and using water. Not a good plan to be on if you are not there for say 6-8 months of the year, but not aware of anything else you can do to lower the cost.

Re: Water bills - what to expect
 

Water usage is metered; usage is estimated one month then read the next. Any overestimate is corrected the following month when the actual meter reading is known.

Our bill includes a monthly charge for rubbish collection.