Hi there,

Would anyone be able to help me out, in negotiations with landlord - who has just presented us with a bill for 145E for 3 weeks water in a 5 bed villa?  Surely this can’t be right/typical..?  We believe there is a structural problem with the pool causing water loss that we should not have to underwrite on a short term let, but could do with hearing from anyone what a ‘normal’ bill might be for a property of this size… thanks!

If anyone has any feedback we’d love to hear it,

Maya

Hi Maya,
Did he show you the actual bill?  In our area it is only for a 3 month period - and even then it comes 6 months in arrers!

If you are able to visit the offices (or maybe they even have a website?) of said water co - I got a chart listing the actual cost per cubic litre.  It is common to get the first 20 cubic litres for a small sum - around 14 cents per cultr?  It then goes up to a higher band for use in a month over that, then again and again.
The largest bill we ever got (2 people 24x7 occupancy of a small campo finca - but we had to water the garden 4 times a day one summer - so a lot of water!).... was Eu150 for 3 months.

I think the landlord is trying it on.
I think you are familiar with the ‘system’ here and if you have any complaints/concerns you can go to your local consumer office.
Was there also a rental contract for the short term let?  What are the writtern Ts&C’s. 

If the bill is accurate (and he is not watering his veggies/garden too!).. then yes, it is possible there is a leak somewhere.
But as you say… why should you cough up. It is his responsibility!

(NB An ex landlord where I only paid rent and no bills thankfully - His water bills were around Eu400 for 3 months - as he watered the lawn twice a day all through the summer!).

Is it a private water co/urbinization (which usually set their own tarrifs), or a local company.

Good luck. sj

Thanks so much Susan,

We got hold of a copy of the actual bill and it was for 20th July to 22nd Sept - we were here from 1st Sept so he had simply divided it by the number of weeks to allocate it.  When by their own admission they had more than 12 people living here when they were doing weekly rentals in the summer!  So we are going to go down to Amjasa and try and work out the actual usage for Sept, and present them with what we feel is a fair allocation. 

Like you say its a case of them thinking as we’re relatively new round here they can just pull the wool.  We’re not trying to get out of one penny of what we actually owe - just want to pay a fair/correct amount.  So sticking to our guns!

Mx