€1542 water bill for two months.

A friend of mine this year received a water bill for ONE MONTH of €3,000 from Indaqua. No leaks, no reason for such an excessive charge, and they checked the meter and said it works.

Even though the next month's bill was back to normal they still said it had to be paid.

the other day, our cleaner received an electricity bill of €1,500 out of the blue as well and they have given her till the end of the month to pay or be cut off. She has no money.

It does leave me wondering about the validity of some of these bills. The utility companies hold all the cards.

Also if you have a reliable friend get them to check that a neighbour or nearby builder is not helping them selves to your water or power.

We have seen cables and hoses going from one property to another.
A friend discovered that their water line had been tapped by a nearby neighbour, Not Portuguese.

We have seen gypsies take water from roadside connections.

We had a similar situation with EDP a couple of months ago. Got a bill for €480+ euros and since we pay by direct debit they took the money from our account. This is our new house which only has builders there and we know the meter had only gone from 3811 when we bought in March to 4024 when we got that bill.

Anyway, after much time on the phone it turns out that they considered the starting meter reading to be 98865 (we did actually recieve a bill to this effect, but the meter reading was printed on the back in tiny letters so I didn't notice it - and it *definitely* wasn't that). So we had to log a complaint and start all that process which has taken weeks.

A couple of weeks ago we got a new starting bill with the correct (3811) meter reading, so it seems that our complaint has been upheld. The previous owner has been on the phone to us in tears because they're chasing her for the money now. Friday they refunded *some* of the money, €276.41. Maybe that's the refund less the meter reading now, we've been using the furo a lot, but I need to check. I'd written it off tbh.

Anyway, in future I'll be checking bills very carefully!

I once had a water bill for around 500 euros for a house I wasn't even using.

Turned out to be a leaking tank. Contacted the local council and explained the situation and they waived the bill.

Might be worth a trip to your local Camera.