About the electricity bill. When one initiates usage, which is to say, one has just leased an apt, then how does it work with the company? What control have you over the meter and insure it's not tampered with? How does one know one will pay one's consumption only and not previous tenant and/or next door's? I had a perplexing experience when I rented one month in Merida (but then apt came with all included, so I needn't care).
My first trip to Mexico back in the 80's I ran out of bottled water one night and the next morning brushed my teeth with a Coke. Hahaha Thats fantastic
Good questions, and I'll start with the easiest one first. To be sure others are not stealing your electricity you check your meter reading several times a month (takes seconds): I do this before leaving on holiday, and after returning, to be sure no one used my electricity while I was gone, as well. (From experience I now know that, with all my electrical equipment unplugged, except for the refrigerator, I will use only about 1 KWH of electricity/day while out of town.) Second, you inspect the area in which your meter is located, looking for changes in the wiring around your meter, or other changes that could indicate tampering, such as the removal of the seal to your meter. Even if you can't detect any changes, an unexpected jump in your consumption could lead you to ask an electrician to come inspect for you: I've never had an incident of theft happen to me, but I've witnessed it happening to others who live in same the building. It's easy to establish electric service in your name, if you have a copy of your lease, and a residence permit (whether you can do it with just your passport is something I've never had to test: perhaps others will have had experience with this situation). You will also be asked to pay a deposit of 500 pesos or so. When establishing service in your name, you have the opportunity to break the chain of responsibility that may exist as a result of unpaid claims by others. If memory serves me, Gringation may have had an unpleasant experience with this type of event, and could fill in the details on what can happen. [Here's where my experience is not broad enough to know for sure: is it enough to just get the service put in your name, under a new account number, or is there an audit process that you can request leading to a complete release of claims for previous debt owed on that meter. The electric company can tell you.]
Many landlords leave the electric in their name, like it's some prized possession. When you leave, you will be asked to provide a paid receipt for the last bill or they will mess with your deposit. But guess what, deposits are often difficult to recover. Sort of depends on the landlord. Some friends authorized me to receive their deposit refund after moving to the states. It took me three months to recover the deposit, minus some funky charges, from an otherwise pleasant lady. Caveat emptor. But obtaining service for electric, water, phone, cable, internet, etc is relatively simple, with proof (lease) that you are entitled to the service, id, etc.
My most recent energy bill was $3179.00 pesos and that's after the government subsidized $2955.78 of it! So my total bill was $5696.24 pesos! I didn't think I used that much energy. My place is large though and I have visitors a lot of the time. I have four different a/c units in my place for each area. They are rarely on all at the same time, usually only one or two... however I do have it on 24/7. So I would say that it's expensive.
That's Horrible About Deposit Refund! They insist you pay refundable deposit and then play games. What's the rental contract for if not to protect both parties? It's the incapacity to trust that I find tiresome. In Merida I rented from a real estate company owned by 2 lawyers. My electricity was included in the rent. One day the Company passed by and cut service, claiming owners hadn't paid bills for months. But within an hour the administrator got an employee to reconnect service (illegally opening the box). And life went on as usual. Thanks V. and TJ, for your informative input
A crime, here as elsewhere, and people here actually do get prosecuted for theft of electricity, it's just that enforcement is sporadic, and the punishment mild, typically arrest- after which friends and relatives satisfy the bill and the offender is released. Incarceration rarely lasts longer than a day, I've read. Thousands slip through the cracks, aided by low level employees of the electric company. To make up for the shortfalls in revenue produced by what the CFE estimates to be 40% of their electricity being stolen, they simply raise the rates to what must be among the highest in the world. Once you move beyond the range of subsidies a KWH costs about 2.5 pesos, about seven times what a KWH of electicity costs in Colorado Springs, CO. Get above the subsidized amounts by much, and your bill can take off, like Beauty reported. Get a copy of the summer-winter tariffs for our area: stay within the amounts they show to be subsidized and your bills will be surprisingly small, winter and summer.
Shut the front door!!!!!! I had quit the opposite happen on my last billing cycle. My total CFE I paid the beginning of Aug was for $53 pesos. I was overjoyed.. to say the least!!!!
