Paying For Water/electricity Meter

[Neeranam]

I'm buying house, which will be finished soon. It is part of a 'project' of 15 houses. They told me today that I'll have to pay about 70,000 baht extra for installing the electricity and water meters! Shouldn't they pay for this? Anyway, sounds way over the top even if I do have to pay for them.

Anyone any experience, advice?

[Morden]

Way over the top for meters. Ask the person who will have his or her name on the blue book to visit the relevant offices to fins out what they charge.

The builder will not do any work on this job other than to install the pipework and cabling from the meters to the house. It's the water and electricity offices that install meters.

[Crossy]

I suspect you're being asked to fund a transformer (or a lot of cable and poles) as well as the meter, ask for a detailed breakdown of the costings and post here for comment.

We paid PEA about 30k for 3 poles, 50m of cable and our 15/45 meter.

[Morden]

That may be the case but the OP mentioned only meters and, in a housing developments, common costs such as for posts and cables are usually included in the house cost.

[Crossy]

Indeed he does, but that number is so ridiculously over the top for a meter deposit and connection that he may actually be funding something else.

Many (most) developments provide the transformer and cabling to the units (rather than the supply authority doing that), yes it's usually included in the house price, but his may be the non-usual instance.

Asking what you get for your money is the first step in finding out where they're coming from.

[Neeranam]

Thanks for the replies guys. I'll be back when I find out exactly what the money is for.

Any idea about the water meter cost for installation?

[Crossy]

Any idea about the water meter cost for installation?

Unlike the electricity meter it's all done by your contractor, buy a certified meter and hook it in to the supply, then call the authority to read it and start billing. I'm not absolutely sure but I think ours cost a couple of k for the meter and a few hundred for the man to patch into the mains.

Note, we are not on a development, so no middle man in the mix.

[AnotherOneAmerican]

Electric co in CM say 4,500bht for the meter and deposit.

Have you asked about the house transfer at the land office yet, about 7% of the house purchase price sometimes.

[Pib]

Wow....70K baht....probably just a tad expensive. When we (the Thai wife and I) bought our new house in Bangkok approx. 5 years ago the developer's fee for electricity hookup/meter installation & deposit was 4,000 baht. The developer acted as the middleman between us and the electric company. And just as extra info, the developer handled (did the middleman thing) for our water meter hookup/installation/deposit and the cost was 600 baht. And when I say middleman I just mean they handled all the paperwork/legwork with the electric and water agencies....and the electric and water accounts are in the Thai wife's name.

Oh yea, 70K baht is BIG TIME high unless maybe a transformer/lines also have to be installed; in my case no transformer/lines needed to be installed....just hook-in the electric & water meters to in-place electric/water lines on the soi.