Help please - Gas disconnected

Hi All,

We actually have a holiday apartment in Costa del sol not in your area but your forum seemed very up to date so I hope you don't mind the intrusion from someone a bit further south!
Anyway we bought this place in August 2014, a Spanish solicitor with London offices handled the purchase and this included setting up our Spanish bank account and all the utilities and direct debits for these. All went well and we use the place just during every school holiday except Christmas which equates to about 12 weeks a year. Every other month Endesa Energy takes around 135-140 euros with more coming out in summer when we re here for longer and we assumed these amounts were for both gas and electric although we have never saw a paper bill.July and Augusts are around 450 euros so we thought that seemed about right for both electric & gas. We have had bills for gas sent here to the address from gas natural Andalucia for some bi-monthly amounts but these bills were to the address not us personally so we assumed this was an error and the bills were not ours as our solicitors had set up all our utilities accounts as previously mentioned. Now fast forward to this week and we have arrived here to find our gas has been disconnected, the meter outside is locked with a padlock but we have had no correspondence by mail or otherwise. We have called the solicitors but the person who handled was "unavailable " and we were told someone would look into this and get back to us but they wouldn't say when. I realise this is all a bit ambiguous but wondered if anyone else has had a similar experience and could give advice, we have tried to call both Endesa and gas natural Andulucia but I'm afraid my limited Spanish couple with my Geordie accent led me straight into a brick wall. No problem paying our way but obviously when a solicitor says they have set up a direct debit and money comes out the account to an energy company you assume all is well and if we actually should have been paying gas natural Andulucia would it really have taken them 18 months or so to disconnect the account? Anyway as it stands we are out here until Sunday with our 3 young children and we can't bath or shower them so any advice would be great just in case the solicitor doesn't get back to us. Thanks

Have you checked your bank account to see if the bills have been paid by your bank?

Yes bills have been paid to Endesa bi/monthly

But no bills paid to Gas Natural ?

No nothing whatsoever, Either way looks like it's going to cost me dearly & I'm starting to think lets just pay anyone as cold showers in Feb are bleak

Morning, we had a similar problem when we bought and both our water and electricity were cut off at different times approximately one year later. Bills were arriving addressed to the previous owner but as they were not addressed to us they remained unopened and we assumed they were chasing him for monies outstanding prior to our purchase. However the monies were leaving our account but were not being applied to the supply account as it was not in our name. Our Solicitor who we have on a retainer sorted it all out. The account was changed into our name, the supply reconnected and no problems since. There must surely be more than one person in the solicitors practice who can look into this and I would insist that they sort it out for you on the basis that they acted on your behalf in connection with the purchase and it was encumber on them to ensure you did not inherit any outstanding debts which is possibly the case if the bills have not been paid or the account changed.

Morning TootandPloot,
Sounds like we've suffered similar fates, funnily enough the solicitor has just emailed & asked for gas bills to be scanned over. I'm attempting to do that now but my wifi is a bit sluggish today but that's another story , hopefully there's a bit of daylight thanks for the info

Hi
I found these numbers below if its any help - Do you have a neighbour or anyone near you who speaks Spanish & English, assuming you are not proficient in Spanish? They may help you talk to the company otherwise just ask if anyone speaks English "Habla usted Inglés". We've found most companies do have someone who understands and speaks English. It does seem your best option and quickest may be to phone them yourself. You will need a bill to hand to get some details to give them (even the old one that you said was sent to the property may help with this) and your full address.

Gas Natural Andalucía, distributor Gas Natural Fenosa subsidiary in the Community, has enabled a new free phone (900 100 252) will improve the service to users of the company. Through this phone, consumers connected to networks of Gas Natural Andalucía can make general inquiries: high again supply point, schedule home visit, termination of supply, regulatory inspection, intervention on the network or any complaints, questions or clarification regarding the management of its supply point.
The company also has another free number (900 750 750), which serves to emergencies in gas installation and provides information on incidents, scheduled outages or special situations that affect supply.

Hope you get sorted soon.


Jan

Thank you Jan I will give that a try