I first emailed Aigües de Barcelona on 1 July 2025 reporting that the water meter appeared to be broken and asking them to investigate. Nothing seemed to happen apart from standard automated responses, so I believe I followed up with a phone call. At some point there may also have been a visit from someone from Aigües. They explained that nothing could be done until the building organised a “comprobación de destinos”, which has to be requested by the building administrator.
On 2 September 2025 I received an email from Aigües stating: “Te informamos que después de realizar una inspección para comprobar que tu contador no funcionaba, hemos detectado que la batería es fraudulenta y procederemos a avisar al administrador de fincas. Te comunicamos que cuando nos encontramos en estas situaciones, Aguas de Barcelona no puede hacer ningún trabajo sobre la batería del agua. Una vez solventada dicha incidencia, procederemos a cambiar el contador.”
I believe I responded (although I cannot find a copy) explaining that the installation was not fraudulent, and that the confusion arose because the croquis of the meter bank is incorrect.
On 18 September 2025 I wrote to Joan at OB forwarding the email from Aigües and asking him to organise a comprobación de destinos. Joan started the process on 23 September 2025.
Joan followed up with Aigües on 29 October 2025 and was told they had no record of the request due to “un error informático.” He was asked to resubmit the request, which he did the same day (copied to me by email).
As there was still no response, Joan chased them again on 26 November 2025, again without reply.
I then followed up myself on 2 February 2026 by email (copying Joan). On 3 February 2026 Aigües replied to me only, sending a form titled “Solicitud traslado equipos de medida / Aumento de destinos.”
This was not correct: we had requested a comprobación de destinos, but they had converted it into an aumento de destinos request.
In any case, I forwarded the form to Joan and he took over from 4 February 2026, with Paula at OB handling the process. I had to go to the OB office on 11 February to sign an authorisation and the libro de actas.
At that point I suggested to Joan that we should proceed with the request even if it was the wrong procedure, simply to ensure that someone from Aigües came out to inspect the installation. In retrospect this proved to be the right approach.
On 3 March 2026, Estefanía, an inspector from Aigües de Barcelona, visited the building. I showed her the meter bank and explained the whole situation. Fixing the 1-1 meter was only one of several issues, but she said she would get things sorted out. She clearly understood the problem and appeared capable of moving things forward.
On 6 March 2026, without prior notice, a team of technicians from Aigües arrived at 9:00am and replaced our water meter. The work took around 15 minutes.
As a result, our meter has finally been replaced around a year after it stopped working and almost nine months after I first reported the problem to Aigües de Barcelona.
It remains to be seen whether they will now simply start invoicing us based on actual consumption going forward, or whether they will attempt to regularise the previous period by estimating consumption for the months when the meter was not functioning.
Mark says:
Email from Aigües confirming new water meter installed.
Mark says:
1-1 Broken Water Meter – Timeline
I first emailed Aigües de Barcelona on 1 July 2025 reporting that the water meter appeared to be broken and asking them to investigate. Nothing seemed to happen apart from standard automated responses, so I believe I followed up with a phone call. At some point there may also have been a visit from someone from Aigües. They explained that nothing could be done until the building organised a “comprobación de destinos”, which has to be requested by the building administrator.
On 2 September 2025 I received an email from Aigües stating:
“Te informamos que después de realizar una inspección para comprobar que tu contador no funcionaba, hemos detectado que la batería es fraudulenta y procederemos a avisar al administrador de fincas. Te comunicamos que cuando nos encontramos en estas situaciones, Aguas de Barcelona no puede hacer ningún trabajo sobre la batería del agua. Una vez solventada dicha incidencia, procederemos a cambiar el contador.”
I believe I responded (although I cannot find a copy) explaining that the installation was not fraudulent, and that the confusion arose because the croquis of the meter bank is incorrect.
On 18 September 2025 I wrote to Joan at OB forwarding the email from Aigües and asking him to organise a comprobación de destinos.
Joan started the process on 23 September 2025.
Joan followed up with Aigües on 29 October 2025 and was told they had no record of the request due to “un error informático.” He was asked to resubmit the request, which he did the same day (copied to me by email).
As there was still no response, Joan chased them again on 26 November 2025, again without reply.
I then followed up myself on 2 February 2026 by email (copying Joan). On 3 February 2026 Aigües replied to me only, sending a form titled “Solicitud traslado equipos de medida / Aumento de destinos.”
This was not correct: we had requested a comprobación de destinos, but they had converted it into an aumento de destinos request.
In any case, I forwarded the form to Joan and he took over from 4 February 2026, with Paula at OB handling the process. I had to go to the OB office on 11 February to sign an authorisation and the libro de actas.
At that point I suggested to Joan that we should proceed with the request even if it was the wrong procedure, simply to ensure that someone from Aigües came out to inspect the installation. In retrospect this proved to be the right approach.
On 3 March 2026, Estefanía, an inspector from Aigües de Barcelona, visited the building. I showed her the meter bank and explained the whole situation. Fixing the 1-1 meter was only one of several issues, but she said she would get things sorted out. She clearly understood the problem and appeared capable of moving things forward.
On 6 March 2026, without prior notice, a team of technicians from Aigües arrived at 9:00am and replaced our water meter. The work took around 15 minutes.
As a result, our meter has finally been replaced around a year after it stopped working and almost nine months after I first reported the problem to Aigües de Barcelona.
It remains to be seen whether they will now simply start invoicing us based on actual consumption going forward, or whether they will attempt to regularise the previous period by estimating consumption for the months when the meter was not functioning.
Mark says:
Email from Aigües confirming new water meter installed.