Electric meter connections.....

Stewart


Joined: 19/07/2008
Posts: 1107

Message Posted:
27/10/2009 12:16

Would love your comments about problems / pricing / etc encountered within the last 9 months

magicart


Joined: 05/10/2008
Posts: 985

Message Posted:
27/10/2009 18:07

Hello,



Here is my experience -for what its worth!!



We paid £2.500 for part of the installation under the heading "transformers"-no sign of one yet



£400 for the pleasure of having a 3 phased connection to our meter instead of single.



£160 for the meter.



£200 deposit-god knows if this is refunable.



To add to all this we have now been informed that we are still on builders electric because of some missing paperwork at twice the cost of normal electricity-Oh and guess what -we have to pay an additional £120 to switch over to the standard tariff.



Its an absolute mine field and some builders\developers (not all)see a real opportunity to screw their clients.



Fight them on the beaches and never ever surrender!



Art

Stewart


Joined: 19/07/2008
Posts: 1107

Message Posted:
27/10/2009 18:18

Dear Art



Your contribution costs towards the transformer, should be clearly stated on your contract. ie in GBP



Before signing is the best time to negotiate ( about 1.5k is about the norm )



Deposit is not really a deposit..it is for the meter, then there is a "fitting" charge



AFTER the transformer is installed and wires from the transformer lead to the METER BOX do you need to pay for the meter...at the Electric board



Because many people have problems with this, I am thinking about offering a "connection service"...with connection within 14 - 21 days max...with your experiance, would this service have been any good use?

joandjelly


Joined: 24/02/2008
Posts: 2953

Message Posted:
27/10/2009 19:59

Hi Stewart how have you worked out your "norm" figure as the cost depends on how far from the nearest main supply (11000 volts I think) the transformer will be. To give you an example, my site has been quoted approx £45k for our electricity (100KVA) because the supply is 900 metres away. By the way this is straight from the horses mouth (kib-tec) rather than the builder.

scruff


Joined: 15/07/2008
Posts: 1070

Message Posted:
27/10/2009 20:07

Stewart.

I agree that all these things should be on your contract.

Fine. Negotiate it before you sign the contract.

Then when your house is completed & you've paid most (or all) of your stage payments & the builder increases the figure to something different & says he will not install electricity or give you your keys or hand over your kocan in future until you pay the revised figure, what are you going to do?

You are giving the impression to people newly arrived, that the situation with new builds are the same as in the UK. where a contract means what it says & is legally enforceable.

The scenario I've outlined above has not occured in my case, but you know, as well as I do, that this is what happens here. How long have you been in the TRNC?

magicart


Joined: 05/10/2008
Posts: 985

Message Posted:
28/10/2009 10:47

Hi Stewart,



Thank you for making a contribution to this thread- its very useful.



I do however agree with message 5 and her comments mirror the type of situation that we and two other purchasers on our site are in at the moment .The contract is not legally enforceable unless you sue for breach of contract.This is time consuming and will cost you a lot of money-You may well win the court case but if the builder hasn't any money or assets its a pointless and costly procedure.



All of the legal cards are stacked in favour of the builder/developer and they are fully aware of this when they start to blackmail you for extra payments.



I wish to make it clear that not all builders/developers use the same tactics-I can only communicate whats going on with our developer and the relevant issues.



Art

britvic



Joined: 05/09/2008
Posts: 3039

Message Posted:
28/10/2009 11:15

I was in Kibtec 2 weeks ago, here is a how to, for when you finally get sorted.

Having been passed by Kibtec we were now ready to go down to the office to get our connection sorted. Firstly we needed to go to our Solicitors and get the original contract that is stamped on the last page that says we had paid our tax, after a short while we had this in hand, along with Passports, off to Kibtec (Girne main high street, from the car park straight down to where the road forks, turn right).

When you go in to the building you need a ticket, select 'empty' in green, the other one (red) is for payments, the green one is for enquiries, hand all of your documents over to the 3 million people behind the counter, they then ask 26 thousand times who your builder is and what is your address, this process takes about an hour, you are then told to leave the building and take some papers to another building 50 meters up the road on the left, here you go up some very dodgy stairs to an office where Con

britvic



Joined: 05/09/2008
Posts: 3039

Message Posted:
28/10/2009 11:16

cont..

who then left the room and shouted at someone, then about half an hour later came back with a file, we were then told to take the file back to the original office

Back to the office and again 3 million people behind the counter fussed over the file we handed in, 10 minutes later we were told to take the file next door and up yet more stairs (not dodgy ones).

Walking into this office we were told "you need to see, this lady on your right (who was on the phone and never looked up) then the man in the office."

All that done we then went downstairs and paid 2500 ytl, this was Thursday 8/10/09, we were told we would have electric by Wednesday 14/10/09.

Wednesday came and went, so on Thursday we went back to Kibtec, and were sent back up the dodgy stairs, only to be told we had to go to the power station this is on the way out of Girne, when you come to the fountain roundabout turn right, we came firstly to a canteen full of men, one spoke English, we were then taken to an con

britvic



Joined: 05/09/2008
Posts: 3039

Message Posted:
28/10/2009 11:18

office where our connection request was found, and were told we would have our connection tomorrow Friday 16/10/09.

True to their word, they connected us on that day! Yippee!



The best thing to do after the whole Kibtec office experience would be to go to the power station the next day, hope this helps.



Vicki

MarkVPiazza


Joined: 14/08/2008
Posts: 530

Message Posted:
28/10/2009 11:19

In a rare defence of builders in general, when we purchased our land we sat in an office with our builder and someone from Kibtek who told us it would cost £4,400 (involved moving a high voltage pole/line from our land onto the street.



A few months later when we were ready for the electric pole to be moved, Kibtek said it would now cost £7,500 - we complained, but at the end of the day, if we didn't pay, they wouldn't do the work, and we couldn't build.



I'm afraid you as well as your builder are at the mercy of Kibtek



Mark

Stewart


Joined: 19/07/2008
Posts: 1107

Message Posted:
29/10/2009 12:16

Many many thanks for the replies, most welcome



Regarding costs...some comments did not mention wether the costs were for the transformer, transformer and Meter or just the meter.



Anyone wanting connection to a meter, I can assist, I am not planning to rip anyone off, but offer a genuine service, far below the prices quoted above, using a local TC who can cut through the aggro .....contact me off line for details via stua@fsmail.net

Stewart


Joined: 19/07/2008
Posts: 1107

Message Posted:
29/10/2009 12:20

Dear Art.....ever thought of paying the Contracted Transformer cost to your Solictitor...the builder then has to obtain the money from them, inc a signature....if they want more...they have to go through the solicitor...not you?....it works for me

magicart


Joined: 05/10/2008
Posts: 985

Message Posted:
29/10/2009 13:41

Hi Stewart,



Thanks for this, its a very good idea but we had to pay all the money up front in order to get our electricity .This is where the blackmail element kicks in-We can however hold back our final payment and get involved in a bun fight.We know his next move will be linked to our title deeds so the battle just continues.



Unlike many we are very fortunate because our Villa is almost finished and we have mains water and electricity but we know we have a few more issue's to face in the coming months.



Its a nightmare but we are happy to live here and very lucky not to have lost a substantial sum of money.



Art