Getting the cut off

[blondie]

SIGH

For three months now Aguagest keep sending a guy round to my house when I´m not there and putting a little bit of wire around the Llave de paso for my water and cutting it off.

One time he left a scribbled note with the neighbour, looked like something a 3 year old would write, saying that I had to get some things installed on the piping and that he could do it for "cheap" - 130 euros.

I eventually got my own plumber to do it for 95 euros. Last night I come home to find the water cut off completely. Called my plumber around to connect it. There was a little note saying water suspended but no reason why and a phone number, which when rang at 8pm at night only gives you a voice mail, and there was no emergency number.

I rang them this morning:

me:I want to know why my water is cut off without any notice?

Her : these things need to be installed on the piping.

me: they are, why didn´t whoever came around to cut me off look first?

her : why didn´t you let us know it was done?the plumbers dont necessarily know why they are cutting off the water.

me: I don´t even have a notice telling me why the water is cut off.

her:then how did you know you had to install these things then?

me:because a guy came round and scribbled it on a piece of paper and
left it with my neighbour.

her:well we sent three letters

me:when?

her: march,april and may

me:I wasnt even living there then.

her:well we dont know that - Ill send someone round now to check it and if its done Ill turn on the water

me:its already on, I had to call a plumber to do it

her:your not allowed to do that

me:and what would you do if you had no notice and no water at 8pm at
night?

her:im just saying your not allowed to touch it.


What a load of bolox!!!

[Campo Kenny]

It's silly bureaucratic red taped riddled stories like that which make my blood boil in Spain.

You pay your dues and play the game and someone always seems to want to make life awkward for you.

I'm nearing the point personally that says playing fair does not pay dividends over there and I'm coming near to the time of saying Fekk'em.........be as smart as them

Every time we visit we have an unnecessary little piece of grief to sort out before holiday can begin.

Kenny

[Don]

Makes me glad we have Aljarafesa not Aguagest although when I bought the house it was the water company of all the services which gave me most grief as at that time I was neither resident nor non-resident and they had an awful time to check if they had recently surveyed the urbanisation in order to accept me as a new client. I had to go in person to their offices and spent a good couple of hours until some engineer across the room gave a nod of approval and said he thought the road had been checked in the last months.

Compared to this, changing the gas, electric and phone was childs play ..... for a Spanish child that is.

[spanish_lad]

out of interest, what was it you needed fitting?

[blondie]

They were called a valvula de retencion and a racor.

They have been fitted.

There is a new twist to the story. They rang me back telling me that they have not been fitted correctly, they are on the wrong side of the contador!!

So I have now demanded a letter from them stating what needs doing so that it can be done.

ARRRGGGHHHHH

[spanish_lad]

oh yeah ? is this a new law then ? hmm.. new things popping up all the time its no wonder everyone gets confused

i had to get authorisation from the water board to shut down a whole street (3 urbanisations) in calahonda a few months ago... they wanted this and that paper and it was gonna take a week or so .. i just did it myself and did the job (20 min tops) then turned it back on lol apologies if anyone was affected by it

30 year old pipework is NOT fun to work with hahahaa

[blondie]

Hey Spanish lad, what are these things for then?

[Faire d'Income]

They're non-return valves. Stops the water running backwards from your house to the mains.

[spanish_lad]

yeah basically non return valves.

not sure why they would of been required tho? i mean normally things like this only happen when its a new build or a change of ownership? you cant add things like this (forcing everyone to pay €130) in to everyones houses just because they want to??

that would be like them cutting my water off even tho we've been here 4 years in this house? it makes no sense.

have you just bought the house ? is it over 4 years old? does it have a bulatin for the electric as well? this could be an interesting thread, finally finding out (at your expense, i'm sorry) as to what has to be done when a person buys a house ..

[blondie]

AAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH again

After my conversation with aguagest last week and asking them to send me a letter confirming what had to be done, I assumed they would take a note of this in the system.

Afraid not. This morning , just about to get in the shower, no water AGAIN!My girlfriend says she thinks someone is outside, so I rush out, after putting some clothes back on, and there are two guys actually taking the counter off the water.

I went mad. They say that they have been told to do it as the piping still hasn´t been sorted out. It´s the same guy that handed me the scribbled not originally stating what had to be done. He says to me he told me what to do and it´s wrong, cheeky ba5tard!!! He wrote down what had to be done but failed to tellme that the valvula de retencion had to be the other side of the counter!!!!!!!!!

Anyway not only has he taken out the counter, but also made a cut in the pipe so that I can´t just connect it directly.

I had to call my plumber there and then , who was not happy, so they could tell him what to do, and on top of this he has to come immediately beacuse they will come back later and if it´s not done they will take away the counter.

So they "kindly" come back and "fix" the cut in the pipe, whcih translates to putting some copper thing over it which still leaks when you turn the water on.

The plumber has now fixed it all, but is well pi55ed off as he gets no more money for it, and he also says that the way he did it teh first time, with the valve on the side furthest from the house is actually correct by law, but because the water company comtrol the supply they can decide whatever they want.

I still have no idea why this had to be done as the water was working perfectly fine before.

[blondie]

Forgot to say, yes we bought the flat end of June, and it is about 30 years old, and yes we do have the boleting for the electric, but are not bothering with the water boletin.

[spanish_lad]

if you make any changes to anything it has to be YOUR side. ie AFTER the meter, this applies to water and electric. before the meter and including it actually belongs to the company that supplies it.

[Don]

This is quite interesting as where we are, we dont have any water storage tank in the house so everything is directly off the mains supply. We do have a separate well supply with storage but that is for pool, garden and casita not the main house. I always wondered how they got away without any non-return valves with the possibility of back contamination of supply. In the UK it is normal to have only one tap direct off the incoming main and the rest of the house is supplied via the water storage from which you cannot get backflow into supply. In this case Blondie do you have a mains water storage tank or just direct connections from mains pressure throughout your house system?

[blondie]

No water storage tank, just mains supply

[spanish_lad]

This is quite interesting as where we are, we dont have any water storage tank in the house so everything is directly off the mains supply. We do have a separate well supply with storage but that is for pool, garden and casita not the main house. I always wondered how they got away without any non-return valves with the possibility of back contamination of supply. In the UK it is normal to have only one tap direct off the incoming main and the rest of the house is supplied via the water storage from which you cannot get backflow into supply. In this case Blondie do you have a mains water storage tank or just direct connections from mains pressure throughout your house system?

no, its a new legal requirement thats not been in long, every new house must have them. (new house or new connection or change of owner... )

[Don]

So spanish_lad, the non return valve I can understand but what is the "racor" ? And both must be fitted on the mains side or the house side of the meter and main tap? Just to be prepared.

[spanish_lad]

at my guess it would be some kind of filter unit ? (racor is a brand name). if you do anything it has to be on the house side, if they do anything it can be on either side but will probably be on the mains side.

strange, because with sevilliana they own all the lines, the cable from the pylon (which must incidently be metal and over 6m high) belongs to you, but then the meter belongs to them...all very strange hahaha

[blondie]

Don,

the llave de paso had to stay on the side of teh counter away from the house, and the valvula de retencion on my side of the counter.

They have finally left me alone - hooray!

Plus I might be able to get the old owner to pay for the owrk as when we signed in notary, she has to declare that the flat is free of debts and charges and they have been sending her letters from way before I bought the place - result! (hopefully)

[Don]

I found racor as a brand name too but no idea what its function is. Have to wait until or if Aljarafesa comes.

[Don]

Glad you got a result Blondie - our last posts overlapped.
Saludos.