Unit Electricity costs

[orlov]

I had a house built for me on Ko Samui which was finished about 3 years ago. Since then it's been empty and never lived in. The estate developer (ex pat Brit) built a couple of other houses on the estate but these seemed to be empty and there are still many empty plots. He rigged up a temporary electricity supply to the houses and has only recently got round to installing individual electricity meters. My house has recently been rented out and I only just discovered that instead of the electricity company reading the meter and charging me directly, in fact the estate has one meter that covers all the houses and receives only one bill from the main supplier (similar to what happens if you live in a condo). The developer who owns the transformer just received a significant bill last month and has just informed me that he intends to charge my house 8 baht/unit. To add insult to injury the transformer he originally installed to serve the estate packed up last year because of inadequate maintenance and I paid him a percentage of the cost for a new transformer, which he nevertheless claims he owns. When the house was built there was nothing in the contract about the electricity supply and I never remotely anticipated the current situation arising. I do have a possible buyer for the house but I doubt he'll go ahead if he discovers he'll be charged 8 baht/unit, so this latest situation makes the house virtually unsaleable.

Questions:

1. Can anybody with any legal knowledge tell me what my legal rights are in the absence of a contract of electricity supply with the developer? Would the building of a house imply that the developer is responsible for providing an electricity supply at normal electricity board rates unless a specific alternative arrangement had been entered into?

2. If a unit price cannot be agreed and I pay the developer the normal electricity board unit price does he have a legal right to cut off my supply?

3. As a longer term solution what would be the approximate cost of getting the electricity company to run a line directly from the transformer to the house so that they can bill me directly? Could the developer who owns the transformer stop me from doing this if I wished or otherwise get involved and make it difficult?

Constructive comments (only please) would be much appreciated..

[Crossy]

He is re-selling the power, he can charge pretty well what he likes, unlike the UK there is no cap on what a re-seller can charge. If you don't pay he can of course cut off your supply.

I doubt that PEA would entertain running power over private property (the street) without permission, which the developer would not give. Remember the poles belong to the developer as well.

I think you're screwed, have you tried negotiating say, 6 Baht a unit?

Is this high rate permanent, or just to get over the large bill that's just arrived?

Is street lighting etc being charged separately or is it included in your power bill?

Do note, that if the developer still has a construction supply rather than a permanent supply, he will be paying about 8 Baht a unit anyway. Up to him to sort that.

Time to get out your negotiating skills I suspect.

[manarak]

Price of electric power is one of the most important things to check out for renting or buying anything in Thailand

[orlov]

Crossy - Thanks your reply, albeit rather discouraging! Whilst the houses remained empty the developer picked up a very small bill for the whole of the estate, not more than a couple of thousand baht per month. In the last 6 weeks or so I've had quite a lot of maintenance work done on my house to bring it up to scratch for renting, had some work done on the pool, aircon installed etc. There is now a tenant living there so suddenly electricity is being consumed at a fair rate and this has obviously shown up on the developer's bill. So he's suddenly woken up and realised that he needs to start taking monthly meter readings - at least of my house - and start billing for usage.

I received an email from him about a week ago which stated that he would charge 6b/unit but in the latest email he now wants to charge 8b/unit. So frankly he's pulling figures out of the air. There is no lighting on the estate so no 'common usage' as far as I am aware. It seems to me that there's going to be a problem with both billing and payment in the longer run as the developer lives an hour's plane journey away from Samui so he is going to have to find an agent to read the meter and collect the money. This, of course, is the developer's problem but it raises another question - can he charge an additional amount for agent's services? As regards your question about the unit costs the developer is paying (construction costs or domestic costs), the answer is I don't know. What happens when some houses are complete so the householders are expecting to pay the domestic rate whilst some houses are still being built so the developer is still paying the construction rate?

[thomasteve]

Price of electric power is one of the most important things to check out for renting or buying anything in Thailand

............and water.

[manarak]

Price of electric power is one of the most important things to check out for renting or buying anything in Thailand

............and water.

water is cheap anyway