Cancelling utility services?

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Lion
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Cancelling utility services?

Postby Lion » Wed Jan 11, 2006 3:49 pm

We have decided to move back to UK to rent soon and are going to get cancel all the utilites such as Phone/Internet/Water/Electric.

Will I need to cancel these in writing giving 1 months notice or will I be able to do it over the phone?

Also with Telefonica we have a phone that was supplied to us, I presume we have to return that (kept the box and manual) - if so how?

Any advice on doing the above appreciated.

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Postby lis48 » Wed Jan 11, 2006 4:56 pm

We moved house recently and cancelled electricity, phone and internet by phone a couple of days before. When we tried to cancel further in advance, all utilities reacted in horror and said just phone us the week you leave. I think you will find that Telefonika charged you for the phone and won't want it back. Ours we gave away. Make sure you get your deposits repaid so you might want to leave a bank account open as it will take time for the final readings to come through.

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Re: Cancelling utility services?

Postby Bongtrees » Wed Jan 11, 2006 6:08 pm

You may wish to reconsider canceling water electricity and telephone if you are selling or intend to come back some time in the future because (and may not be the case where you are) if shortage of landlines for instance, your number could be given to someone else and if a purchaser needs a phone line it could be a deal breaker with no phone.

Secondly could cost you or prospective buyer a fortune to reconnect to the electricity supply. I personally know of 3 people who have had to pay a fortune because have bought a property and not taken care of taking over the sellers contract and electricity company insisted on checking installation and insisting on rewiring plus an enormous amount of paperwork required. Not sure about water but also know others who had to pay large sum for a new contract, in one case 1450 for the contract and about 250 for re installation of meter.

As for Internet if its Wanadoo, send fax, registered letter and email.

For the small amount it must cost for standing charge my advice FWIW
is keep water electric and phone contracts going.

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Postby Beachcomber » Wed Jan 11, 2006 6:31 pm

I would suggest that you transfer the contracts to the new buyer as long as you can come to some arrangement. The person acting for the purchaser should do this but if it is a lawyer he probably won't.

However, if you are going to leave your bank account open for any reason ie return of 5% tax retention etc. make sure you keep a close eye on the account because even if you cancel your standing orders with the bank they may continue to be paid.

You have twenty days to annul a standing order that you dispute. If you have internet access you can annul any erroneous standing orders as long as you have your transaction code as well as your username and password.

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Postby Bongtrees » Wed Jan 11, 2006 6:44 pm

Hi Lion

After reading Beachys message I wondered if I misundertstood.
I thought I had read on another thread that you had not found a buyer yet.

Mike

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Postby Lion » Wed Jan 11, 2006 7:44 pm

Thanks for the replies.
I think you will find that Telefonika charged you for the phone and won't want it back. Ours we gave away.


Ah right, that's probably the case then.
Make sure you get your deposits repaid so you might want to leave a bank account open as it will take time for the final readings to come through.
What deposits are you referring to please?

With regards to the bank account I was hoping to close it as I am sick of all the commission charges (they are even higher commission charges the less money you have in there).
Hi Lion

After reading Beachys message I wondered if I misundertstood.
I thought I had read on another thread that you had not found a buyer yet.

Mike
We havn't found a buyer but are returning to UK next month anyway but only to rent somewhere until we find a buyer for this place.
You may wish to reconsider canceling water electricity and telephone if you are selling or intend to come back some time in the future because (and may not be the case where you are) if shortage of landlines for instance, your number could be given to someone else and if a purchaser needs a phone line it could be a deal breaker with no phone.
I am not keen on leaving Electric/Water and Phone connected (especially the phone as that's expensive for standing charges).
As for Internet if its Wanadoo, send fax, registered letter and email.
All 3 or is one of the above sufficient? (1 months notice?)

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Also, with regards to taxes payable to the Town Hall (Sewerage, Council Tax etc, how will these get paid if I am not here, usually a bill comes through the post and I have to take it to the local bank to pay it and they stamp it, how do holiday home owners get around this problem? (I assume they have bills sent to a UK address instead?)

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Postby safeashouses » Wed Jan 11, 2006 8:25 pm

Lion wrote:
With regards to the bank account I was hoping to close it as I am sick of all the commission charges (they are even higher commission charges the less money you have in there).
We bank with La Caixa and have never been charged commission.

Lion wrote:
I am not keen on leaving Electric/Water and Phone connected (especially the phone as that's expensive for standing charges).
Our standing charges for electricity and water come to less than €10 euros a month. I also think it would be a plus point for selling if they were left connected.

Lion wrote:
Also, with regards to taxes payable to the Town Hall (Sewerage, Council Tax etc, how will these get paid if I am not here, usually a bill comes through the post and I have to take it to the local bank to pay it and they stamp it, how do holiday home owners get around this problem? (I assume they have bills sent to a UK address instead?)
Every bill (except tax) is sent to the bank, paid by direct debit and we receive a monthly bank statement, we get charged €0.53 for the postage.

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Postby katy » Wed Jan 11, 2006 9:40 pm

Wow, leaving is even more complicated than arriving.

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Lion
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Postby Lion » Thu Jan 12, 2006 12:30 pm

Every bill (except tax) is sent to the bank, paid by direct debit and we receive a monthly bank statement, we get charged €0.53 for the postage.
Hmmm, our taxes to the town hall (sewerage etc) always need to be paid at the bank, I will have to ask the chap in the bank if I can set up a direct debit for it.

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Postby lis48 » Thu Jan 12, 2006 3:55 pm

What deposits are you referring to please?
Just check your original bill and see if it refers to a sum of money called a fianza. That will be the deposit I thought everyone paid when they opened up a utility account here and is refundable once final bills have been paid. I don't remember ever viewing a totally empty house here with utilities still connected. If you leave them on, you would have to go through all the paperwork to transfer to a new owner months down the line when not in Spain. Personally I don't trust the system enough to leave utilities connected. I would just cut ties and get me deposits back!

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Postby safeashouses » Thu Jan 12, 2006 3:56 pm

Lion you are referring to your IBI which can be paid by direct debit it's just a once a year bill usually about July.

The tax I was referring to is 'Non-Residents Tax' (income from letting - which is payable whether you rent your property or not, unless you can prove that you pay tax on it in the UK). Presumably you will become liable for this once you move out of your property to return to UK and are therefore no longer resident. If your property sells fairly quickly then you will probably not need to worry about it too much. It's about €100 per annum on a one bedroom apartment.

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Postby Beachcomber » Thu Jan 12, 2006 6:07 pm

safeashouses wrote:The tax I was referring to is 'Non-Residents Tax' (income from letting - which is payable whether you rent your property or not, unless you can prove that you pay tax on it in the UK).
This makes no difference to your liability to pay the tax here. If you also pay tax on your Spanish property in the UK you have to claim it back in the UK. It is not a reason for not paying it here.

Strictly speaking you can only claim back the income tax 'renta' element of the amount paid not the wealth tax 'patrimonio' as there is no such tax in the UK.

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Postby Grouser » Thu Jan 12, 2006 9:24 pm

Lion,
We pay all our bills including local taxes by standing orders at the bank, which incur no charges. The electricity company sends a copy of the bill to our UK address. Because we couldn't, and still haven't, worked out paying our water charges, we went to the Ayajuntamiento and ended up paying 400 euros for a meter and water supply we already had, so I would certainly not get either the water or electricity disconnected as it could seriously disadvantage your ability to sell and cause endless hassles for any purchaser. It's bad enough just getting the electricity account transferred to another name when it's already connected. The small charges you will incur are worth paying. Have you thought of letting it out to friends while you still own it? This could at least cover your costs.
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Postby Lion » Fri Jan 13, 2006 12:14 pm

As for Internet if its Wanadoo, send fax, registered letter and email.
Can anyone confirm if it's one of the above or all 3?
Have you thought of letting it out to friends while you still own it?
It's a no win situation really, I can't let it out as I want to sell it, I can't expect tennants to keep showing people around the property and if they didn't want to go they would just put potential viewers off anyway.

If they were friends letting it then that would be different I suppose but know of nobody that would want to let it.

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Postby Lion » Fri Jan 13, 2006 1:12 pm

Just check your original bill and see if it refers to a sum of money called a fianza. That will be the deposit I thought everyone paid when they opened up a utility account here
Do you mean for all utilities this would apply?

I have kept some original statements so will have to look, I don't recall paying a deposit though.

Regarding leaving everything connected I am still unsure, I don't like the idea of it, and if I do decide I will definately cut the phone off as the standing charge for that is expensive.

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Postby Jade138 » Fri Jan 13, 2006 3:11 pm

Lion, this thread is of interest to me as we are moving too but not for the same reason as yours. I wish you luck. :P

If I am in your position, I would definitely have the phone line cut off as nobody can guarantees that no one will misuse the priviledge at my expense during my absence.

I will, however, leave the water and electricity running.
Imagine if potential buyers or agents used the toilet without realizing that there was no water to flush ..........

..............
IBI - I opted to have this paid twice a year as opposed to once a year as the total amounts to about one thousand Euros annually. The amounts are deducted via a standing order with our bank in Jerez.
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Postby Grouser » Fri Jan 13, 2006 6:40 pm

I meant as a holiday let for the odd week here and there, not for full time rental as this could cause you problems getting the tenants out. Provided you don't let anyone book it too far ahead it shouldn't be a problem as even when you do find a buyer you won't do the deal instantly.
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Postby safeashouses » Fri Jan 13, 2006 7:12 pm

As for Internet if its Wanadoo, send fax, registered letter and email.
Lion asked:
Can anyone confirm if it's one of the above or all 3?
I think perhaps what the poster meant was that Wanadoo don't wanadoo what you ask them to, so by covering all angles of communication you may be lucky with one.

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Postby Jade138 » Fri Jan 13, 2006 11:50 pm

lis48 wrote:We moved house recently and cancelled electricity, phone and internet by phone a couple of days before.
About two years ago, before we moved to our present house, we expressed interest in retaining our current phone number and the internet to be reconnected at our new domicile on a given date.

Sod's Law, Telefonica was ever so efficient at the wrong time.... they terminated our lines the very next day after the termination notice via phone through our estate agent. They were one week ahead of schedule!!!!

Two days later, the same phone number and internet were in operations in our present home.
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