[Anonymous]

Can anyone suggest what can be done? Sorry, this is a bit involved.

We were sold a house with mains electricity (or so we were told) in 2005.
Our neighbours (developer) who sold it did not tell us that we could not have a contract, on the contrary we and other neighbours were told that we would be moved onto contract after the last house was built (April 2006). This probably was a lie and they intended to build more – I dont think this last one has sold though.
We have subsequently found out that a contract can never happen as the developer had not got planning permissions, licenses etc ( our property lawyer did not advise this before we signed at notary). Effectively the house(s) there locally is/are illegal.
The developer then tried to extort money out of us a year after we had moved in for an electricity connection ( a fee that was not mentioned previously by anyone and also the estate agent details state mains water and electricity connected in the price).

They also wanted to charge for consumption for the year which would be fine if they could have given us proof that they were paying anyone.
They either made excuses, such as the bill was at their town house, or just plain refused. They effectively said, this is the amount, it is owed to us, either pay it or get cut off – they would not put down rates, dates, units used etc. They said anything in order to get the desired result – ie LIED… LOTS!
We decided not to pay until proof was forthcoming and so they have cut us off. (not great when you have 2 kids), so although we aren’t living there ,we couldn’t anyway, neither can we rent it out. Selling is out of the question due to the legality of the situation – we are not about to con anyone just because we have been. We just aren’t like that.

The developer then announced that the electricity was theirs as they have a private transformer behind their cortijo and that they have a private agreement with the electricity company and no one was ever going to get a contract. We cant tell if this is true or just more lies, they seemed to change to story depending on who they were talking to.

We have tried to get the local Endesa offices to investigate or confirm, either way, the legality of the situation, but they take the info and then will not answer emails etc afterwards. Even the Head Office call centre will no longer reply to my emails asking about an investigation – they have said contact the local office which of course has proved fruitless.
I think we are getting stonewalled! We suspect widespread local corruption (familial networking) is at the root of the problem. Surprise, it’s ALBOX in Almeria we are talking about!
2 lawyers have said the situation is not legal. One would not pursue it for us even though they sent a letter on our behalf to one of the offices but then would not follow it up when no response came back. Anyway they are local to the problem and we dont trust them not to have been got at – if you know what I mean?!
The lawyer got the price revised by almost half and an email showing unit rates and units used plus a promise of a contract in our name. But we know that the latter is not possible as the legal situation stands, and they still wont give proof that they are paying anyone. More lies to get the money we suspect.

Paying will not solve the long term problem, or short term, as they will probably try to charge us to have them shin back up the pole and put the wire back. I dont want to give in to never ending blackmail/extortion.

To make matter worse, all our other neighbours paid up or said they did, but frankly we dont trust them either as they prefer to keep in with the Spanish neighbour (the developer).

Any ideas 💡 would be gratefully received. A fresh perspective may help.
Thanks to anyone who has taken the time to read this – bit of an essay, I know!

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