Kibkom North Cyprus Forum

OMG, I've just received my water bill, what a shocker. It says that I've used 26 tonns of water.
We usually only use about 3 tonns, but about a year ago we must have had air flowing through the meter,
as it said we'd used 14tonns.
I tried to explain, got the Cyprus shrug, had no joy, so I paid.

I've just rung the beli, but there is no one there that speaks good English. He told me that I must come to
the beli to discuss this. I asked what was the point, if he can't speak English on the phone, how can he speak
English face to face.

Has anyone else had the same problem?

Same problem in Ozankoy last year. 26 tonns instead of approx. 3/5. Went to the speak with Muhtar's daughter- in -law(English) Was told that I could PAY to have the meter checked but they would "find it OK" and I would still have to pay !!!So not much point.

We had the same about 3 years ago. Now we listen to the noise the water is making as it goes into the tank - if it makes a loud "hissing" sound then we know its air and quickly go and switch off the tap just outside the gate. Sometimes it hisses with just the occasional bit of water and we still turn main tap off.

We also turn one of the outside garden taps off and on, if air is coming out with turn mains off.

flowerfairy wrote:OMG, I've just received my water bill, what a shocker. It says that I've used 26 tonns of water.
We usually only use about 3 tonns, but about a year ago we must have had air flowing through the meter,
as it said we'd used 14tonns.
I tried to explain, got the Cyprus shrug, had no joy, so I paid.

I've just rung the beli, but there is no one there that speaks good English. He told me that I must come to
the beli to discuss this. I asked what was the point, if he can't speak English on the phone, how can he speak
English face to face.

Has anyone else had the same problem?

You are in their country Flower Fairy, take a English speaking Cypriot with you, that is as bad as the Cyprus shrug the way you spoke to the fella.

Sorry but can do better than that, our friend got a bill for 82 tonnes of water for there empty property,took a cypriot to the beli ,what a waste of time they checked the meter and said it was ok
we tried to say that it must be air from the new pipework but usual shrug, they are having to pay it off monthly,hope you have more luck

About 4-5 years ago I had exactly the same problem - they could not have given a toss - even showed them video of it and got the usual shrug. The meter was checked and found to be OK!!!!! Well yes said I -Ok for air!!!
Anyway still even with a Cypriot friend helping I had to pay up. Now we just keep checking and listening to the meter.
One of the prices we pay to be guests here.

We live about 300yds from the well/depot for this part of Alsancak and sometimes we actually spot someone from the Belly, going up to turn the "tap" on or off. Some of the time the force of the water (we are probably the second house on the pipe run) is really strong, but if it isn't, we can be pretty sure there is an airlock (just as you would get in your central heating system) and thats when the meter is going round like the clappers, but no water.

I also had this a while back and I am a citizen by the way - after many visits to the belidiyere and then the mayor , they first fitted a 'air release valve' just before the meter and this made no difference. They then made me pay for a new 'pay in advance' meter and this still did not resolve the issue. We subsequently found that reducing the mains tap to about 30% open rather than fully open did seem to stop the paying for air rather than water problem, though of course we now fill slower when the water is actually on.

I did manage to get a reduction in my bill for the two worst affected months but only after many many visits to the belidiyere AND to the mayor himself. It was very very hard to get them to agree this reduction. They tried everything to deny it was happening, despite me providing video evidence and repeated visits to the belidiyere.

I put my videos on youtube if anyone wants to see them

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4mn-zShFPM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpJjeO8lbHQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5hXFqREl2k

This really is a scandal in my opinion but it has been going on forever. It is tant amount to fraud and theft yet that is just the way it is it seems

Anyway - try turning your mains tap to 1/3 open rather than fully open. With luck this will at least stop or at least reduce the problem in the future. At least that is what worked for me.

would a non-return valve do the trick? putting this in the line?

Oh dear, this is not sounding too good. They reckon my daughter has used 69 tonnes!!!!!
What to do????????

Had a similar problem. Bill came to over TL700 and was not in the country, no leaks etc... told belediye that I would not be paying for it. Got them to disconnect the water meter, and left them to deal with it. On next visit if asked to pay will continue to refuse.

Maybe it would be cost effective in the long term to have a well dug?

Got one, but use it for garden only.

Mum died 3 years ago - house has been empty for the past 3 years - no one using water. My nephew informed me last week that the house just had a bill for over 1000 TL water bill!!!

I'll be going there tomorrow and asking them to sue my late mother! They definitely will not get a penny from us... Belis over-staffed and under-worked, have become a menace! They have to steal from people to survive me thinks!

Not wanting to start entering a competion, but some friends up the road from us, hadn't been in their property for over 6 months, (2011) we checked the house frequently to see if anything was leaking - NO. They don't have a pool but still they had a bill for 1482tl. We could see that every so often the meter reading would increase. We couldn't figure it out at all until it dawned us that the builders to the rear of them had attached a hose to an outside tap at the back of the house and were using my friends water to mix their cement. No explanation was accepted by Alsancak Belly and the bill had to be paid.

Sophie,. the water had been used in this instance, but think so many are having problems with water not being used and just paying for air in their pipes ...

mess 5, RCT,
You are summizing that I spoke badly to the beli. guy. I can assure you that I didn't. I have the utmost respect
for the locals, and have been studying the language for two years. And, yes, I am aware that I'm in their country,
and have been for the past six years. I absolutely love my life here, and usually refer to these instances as ''sunshine tax''.
I was actually smiling when I said about the translation over the phone and speaking face to face. I've been up there enough times to know that he speaks more English than he lets on, and I can speak a bit of Turkish, and I do try.
They normally all look miserable when I go up there, and most times I manage to get a smile out of them. I'm sure they have a thankless job, as most times people visit with problems with their bills.

I just didn't want to spend hours on my laptop typing every word that was spoken.
Now, I'm going back to my garden to enjoy this wonderful weather.
Enjoy the rest of your day.