Iberdrola S. A.

[GeoH]

It could well be a connection charge. It used to be that the builder would take some money to cover connection of electricity and water (about E240 in my case) and then make payment to the utility companies when the changeover was made. Now the utilities insist on having a direct contract with the owners and bank account details. This I understand was because once the connection was made the utilities found it difficult to establish who should be making further payments and the builder had washed their hands of it! Again in our case the builder refunded the money to us direct.
You will presumably have signed a contract for connection (or your solicitor has completed one on your behalf). Have a look at that because that will give the costs of the contract etc. Iberdrola are quite helpful when you contact them.

[dwood]

[Bob-S]

[Lizzy]

water and electricity

when taking over my property in feb I was required to pay an amount of e455 for water and electricity which I paid at San Antonio's office in Torre.

I am still on builders supply and am likely to be for some time yet.

can anyone suggest what I have paid for?

this would seem to tally with other posts' amounts for connection.

also any ideas how I will ultimately get a contract in my own name?

liz

[GillyS]

Don't apologise D Wood - your english is excellent and a lot better than a lot of people's spanish!!

[JWhite]

I am also a little confused as to when the connection charges are paid to the utility companies and who should end up paying for them.

We paid 900 euros to our builder when we paid our final amount to complete on the purchase. This we were told was by our agent was for making the contracts and using the elec. and water whilst on builders supply. When we eventually got a solicitor to complete on the property purchase she applied to the builder for the remainder of our money for the utility costs as she said there was no reason for him to hold this money and she could set up the contracts and direct debits when the time came. She subsequently informed us that there was 543 euros balance remaining from the builder that he passed to her. So what had he actually taken money for as we then had 143 euros deducted from our bank account when the water was connected approx. 18 months after the builder had this 900 euros money from us. This was in addition to the costs to the solicitor for setting up the contracts (elec. and water) which amounted to 500 euros which we were told was for the "gestion" to get the supply. So in effect we ended up paying approximately 820 euros to the builder (we have approx. 80 euros left with the solicitor) and the solicitor but still ended up paying for the connection charges.

Is this correct?

Most people end up paying twice - once to the builder and then again to the utility company. Nobody knows if the two charges are for different things or we are just being ripped off by the builder.