Since 3 November, several property owners in Planes del Rei have reported receiving water bills that are far higher than expected.
One resident was billed for 108 m³ of water — more than €600 — for a household of two people over a three-month period. According to the owner, such consumption is simply impossible.
Billing and collection have been suspended
Domingo Ripollés, a Pratdip municipal councillor, relayed a message from the mayor confirming that the Town Council had suspended the issuing and collection of water bills.
According to that message, anyone who has received a bill showing consumption they believe to be incorrect should not pay it. Those whose payment has already been collected are asked to contact the Town Council so that their case can be reviewed individually.
Domingo Ripollés later explained that BASE had stopped issuing bills while manual checks of water consumption were carried out.
The Town Council says that several spot checks have produced correct meter readings. It is now cross-checking the available data to determine which bills may be affected.
The cause of the problem has not yet been established
At this stage, no precise explanation has been provided for the unusually high amounts shown on some bills.
Possible errors involving automatic meter readings have been mentioned, but this has not yet been confirmed as the cause of every disputed bill. The fact that some readings checked by the Town Council appear to be correct also suggests that the problem may not affect all properties in the same way.
Further checks are therefore needed to determine whether the discrepancies originate from meter readings, the billing period, the transfer of data to BASE or another part of the billing process.
Some property owners have still received no bill
At the same time, several property owners say that they have not yet received a water bill.
One resident reported receiving neither a bill by email nor a direct debit for the past four to six months, even though the system had previously been working normally.
This raises further questions about whether all customer details, contact preferences and payment instructions were correctly transferred following the change from Comaigua to BASE. The exact period covered by the new bills also needs to be clarified.
Several questions remain unanswered
The suspension announced by the Town Council is a necessary precaution, but property owners still need clear information on several points:
- Will direct debits relating to potentially incorrect bills be stopped before they are processed?
- Will all potentially affected accounts be reviewed automatically, or will each property owner have to submit an individual claim?
- What procedure should be followed by those whose bills have already been paid?
- Will any overpayments be refunded automatically, and within what timeframe?
- How will the ACA water levy be recalculated if the recorded consumption is corrected?
- What exact billing period is covered by these first bills issued through BASE?
- Why have some property owners received neither a bill nor a direct debit for several months?
- Were all customer records and payment details correctly transferred?
- How will property owners who are not members of the local WhatsApp groups be informed?
What property owners can check
While awaiting further information from the Town Council, property owners can carry out several basic checks:
- compare the consumption shown on the new bill with previous bills;
- check the current reading displayed on their water meter;
- compare that reading with the final reading shown on their last Comaigua bill;
- compare consumption with the same period in previous years;
- take a dated photograph of the meter reading.
Our municipal councillor recommends comparing the reading currently displayed on the meter with the one shown on the final Comaigua bill. It may also be useful to photograph the current reading and keep the image with the bills concerned.
In accordance with the message relayed by the mayor, anyone who believes that the consumption shown on their bill is incorrect should not pay it until the situation has been reviewed.
Billing errors and water tariffs are two separate issues
The possible billing errors should not be confused with the official water tariffs currently applied in Planes del Rei.
The tax ordinance that came into force in July 2026 introduced a separate tariff structure for Planes del Rei, with standing charges, meter maintenance fees and consumption rates that differ from those applied in the village of Pratdip.
La Tribune de Planas had already presented this ordinance and the new tariffs in an article published in July.
The justification for these tariff differences is a separate matter from the current billing incident. It will require a detailed examination of the figures and of the economic studies used to establish the respective charges.
La Tribune de Planas will update this information as soon as the Town Council provides further clarification.
5/11/2026
La Tribune de Planas
