Email
April 5
I am contacting you after reading an article in the Costa Blanca News about the high water charges.
My name is Roy Farrugia, my wife and I first bought a house in Spain seven years ago, we love living here, so we decided to buy another house in La Manga Club, Cartagena, with the intention to demolish it and build our dream home to spend more time in Spain, as we get older.
I read your article last week, about the lady, who had received a €5,000 water bill, to which the water company agreed to reduce by 50% and accept staged repayments.
We read with interest and amazement as we too have had a very similar situation. We changed supplier to Hidrogea soon after the purchase of our second villa. The property is empty and has remained empty during the coronavirus pandemic.
We received a water bill in excess of €5,000 for the first two months. Alarmed, we checked the whole property for leaks etc and found there to be none. In fact, we had turned the water off as it’s empty and awaiting demolition.
On querying the bill with Hidrogea, they immediately offered to reduce the bill by 50% and accept staged payments. We requested an investigation by their engineers as, no way has there been the usage they are claiming. We were due to have a meeting on site-with their supervisor however, due to travel restrictions and lockdown this has yet to happen.
We are getting constant demands for the amount, despite requesting Hidrogea for a meeting to discuss this situation.
Since this first excessive and clearly incorrect demand from Hidrogea, all subsequent bills have not exceeded €30 for each two month period.
Please let me know if this is something of interest to the newspaper also have any of your other readers experienced similar incidents with their water companies?
Kind regards,
Roy Farrugia
