Utility costs in Spain

Hi Folks
We are revisiting Quesada shortly and hope to buy an apartment over the next few weeks.

Can anyone advise What we can expect to pay for water and electricity for a two/three bedroom apartment , used for approximately 8 weeks of the year. Know it would only be approximate but your views would be very helpful.

We know there are other taxes such a as community fees and SUMA, is there any others we should be aware of ?
Advise much appreciated please.
Audbro

Audbro wrote:Hi Folks
We are revisiting Quesada shortly and hope to buy an apartment over the next few weeks.

Can anyone advise What we can expect to pay for water and electricity for a two/three bedroom apartment , used for approximately 8 weeks of the year. Know it would only be approximate but your views would be very helpful.

We know there are other taxes such a as community fees and SUMA, is there any others we should be aware of ?
Advise much appreciated please.
Audbro

Helo Audbro,


We have a holiday home in Quesada and have found, over the years, that the time we are there doesn't make a massive amount of difference to the bills. We used to go for only 6 weeks a year and while chatting to residents who were there all year round we found that even the bills when we were not there were not that much less than theirs as the standing charges make up a lot of the bill, especially water bills. We don't have plants that need watering in the garden - The few we have take their chances with us and seem to thrive very well! Cacti's are a great option for a holiday-home (unless you want to employ a gardener) - and not Bougainvillea, as beautiful as it is - It will drive you mad! We found out the hard way.


Utility bills in Spain have gone up a lot this year but are still not as much as the UK. The bills for a property will depend on if you have air-con / heating and how much you use it, as this racks up the price.

We do not have air-con and these days ( going by our latest few bills) our bills (3 bed property) seem to be about - Water (Aquagest) 45 to 57 euros for 2 months (The cheaper price is when we are not there)
Electric (Iberdrola) - The last bill was 80 euros for 2 months and we were there for one of those months (It is slightly cheaper when we are not there but I can't find a bill).

Suma for us, this year, with Rojales council (3 bed house) was 226 euros.

Hope this helps - If I can get into my on-line bills with the utility companies later, I will try to update this information more accurately.

You will also have non-resident tax to pay each year for which it is a good idea for peace of mind to employ a Fiscal Representative.

Jan.

Hi folks
Oh jees it seems like another mine field. Jan, thanks for the approx. costs, you are so knowledgeable and thanks again:D .

Guava -Thanks for the advice, will look for professional help for the non resident tax!I need to try to keep the little bit of sanity that I have left.

Cheers
Audbro

Hello Audbro,

Here's our exact Electricity costs this year (two monthly) for a 3 bed property, occupied for three months of the year with no air-con/heating - Actually looking at the bills together it does seem that, since prices have increased this year or so, it does make quite a difference to the bills when we are there to when we are not:

21.10.2013 Factura electrónica 82,60
22.08.2013 Factura electrónica 72,33
26.06.2013 Factura electrónica 71,69
24.04.2013 Factura electrónica 55,58
18.02.2013 Factura electrónica 29,12
20.12.2012 Factura en papel 31,44
18.10.2012 Factura en papel 80,37


As for the Non-Resident taxes - You could try emailing a ‘recommended’ English spoken Spanish fiscal solicitor and ask how much their yearly fiscal fees are.

We used Abaco for our house purchase and lots of other things at the time. They were and still are always available (in English) on email to answer any questions.

I know I mention them a lot on here but they have been very reliable and helpful to us.
http://www.abacoadvisers.com/

To give you some idea, as Non-Residents' our yearly Fiscal fees, to get Abaco to sort out our taxes were 142 euros for 2013, just under 12 euro a month. We think it’s good value for peace of mind and for that fee they sort out all taxes and are on hand to answer any questions & give expert advice by email at any time (included in the Fiscal fees!).

Hope this helps.


Jan

Hi jan,
Thanks again for the brilliant advice and all of those details, will defo look at Abaco for non resident tax return, just for the piece of mind as you said. Think we will look to pay monthly direct debit if possible for electric n water, then no worry about large bills. Cheers Audbro