Big water bill

Certainly you have rights, precisely a. full and immediate access to your water meter and a key for the lock. Any possible restriction agreed by the community is contrary to Law (Art. 96 CC.) and therfor null and void. b. An invoice from the water supplier sent to your home address.

What really happened with the excessive watyer consumption is hard to find out. The water company will stick to the meter reading w/o going into further details. Someone tampered the water installation - yes but where, how, and when?  

The invoices will either be sent to your address or in most cases they are emailed to you. If the water company have your email address  and phone number they will usually notify you of any abnormalities.so it’s a good idea to register to get your bill sent to you on line. 

Excessive bills can mean a few things, but firstly how is your basura collected. I live in the municipality of Guardamar and our basura is still part of our water bill, so we get a”high” bill when the basura is collected. Most municipalities seem to collect this now through SUMA, but check first that the large bill has nothing to with the basura. Someone could feasibly be tapping into you water supply, but the most likely cause of a high bill could be a water leak.  

If there is a leak you need to check your meter, you say they’re in a locked room, so I guess you are in an apartment which is part of a community. You need to speak to the president immediately. Normally I’d say also contact your administrator, but it’s August so they’ll be working with heavily reduced staffing levels.so it will probably take them over a week to get back to you.  They  ( the president) will have access to the meter, but you should have been given the key when you moved in to the property.  Do any of your neighbours have a key to access the meters. You’ll soon see if you have a leak by looking at the meter.  If all your water is switched off inside the apartment  and the meter is still spinning, contact your insurance. I’d  guess that well over 90% of high water bills are due to a  “invisible” leak You need to take action asap  as your next bill could potentially be much much higher.

Lynn

Thank you for helpful reply. I turned off the water in my apartment and went downstairs to what I expected to be a locked cupboard, but despite being 'locked', the doors were easy to open. I found my meter and from what I understand, the left hand black number shows the cubic meters used since the last reading, and total used in all time in red in the right. Like the mileometer and trip readings in car.  As you can see from the photo I can't see anywhere on the meter if water is passing through the meter, like the wheel in an electricity meter when electricity is being consumed. I don't know how many cubic meters I use in 3 months so the reading doesn't mean much to me (it says 10 since last reading) but I will keep an eye on it as it is so easy to open the cupboard. I will get printouts of recent bills from the water company to see my consumption in recent months. This information is online but I can't  get online to see it yet.  Thanks for your help.

Goods news you can access the meter.

As another little warning, you should also be able to turn off your water at the meter. The majority of water leaks occur at that unknown journey from the meter to the main stop cock in the house. 

Lynn

Update:  Having confirmed that the serial number on my water meter is not the same as the serial number on my water bills - since I moved into my apartment in November 2018! - the water company has accepted that they have been sending me water bills for someone else's water consumption, and that I can return the charge debited to my bank account. 215 euros for 93m3 of water 'consumption '.  

I was going to compare 93 m3 with what I normally use, between - 20-30 m3 quarterly - but of course the water 'normally' consumed as shown on my previous bills has been for someone else's consumption and not mine, so it's anyone's guess what my water bills will be in the future, or what the water company propose doing about the last 5 years bills issued to me in error. 

Generally the management company would have keys for all meter room have you contacted them? would there be a leak some where, tank over flow?

You always have rights in Europe. call the water company and open a dispute would be my advice.

should have read the replies first :). with the wrong readings they should go back to the start and make an adjustment. this is the norm with utility companies that mix up meters and believe me its not that uncommon. hopefully for you it will mean a refund instead of a large reconciled bill fingers crossed

Just regarding this, if you walk into a bank and say lodge money to this account number, and it turns out it was the wrong account number, who is at fault?

People have to take responsibility for themselves, and their actions. 

If you were to get a bill with someone else's name on it, would you pay it?

It is up to you to be responsible for your actions, and not always be looking for someone else to blame.

My water bills have been paid automatically by direct debit although I have never received any water bills.  Because they have always been in line with what I would expect (as per my previous apartments) I had no need to query the charges. It was only when I received a water bill for €115 (normally €20-30) that I decided to find out why.  I queried the bills with the water company and was given access to them online only to discover that whilst the bills contained my name, address and bank account number they did not contain the serial number of my water meter.  The water company told me to cancel the direct debited bill for €115 which I have done and now I'm waiting for the correcting bill. I dont think many people would investigate a bill which they considered to be normal and what they expected, as you appear to be suggesting.