Irish Water - Connection Fee

2009_

Morning all,

We are a few weeks away from moving into a new building home, and are after getting a quote from Irish Water for our incoming water connection…which came in at €5,700.
To put that into context, our gas connection was around €250, and our electrical connection was around €1,900 (But we had to move wires and planet a new pole for this connection).
This price is solely for incoming water, our outgoing (foul) water will be an additional charge, which we are yet to be quoted for.

We have requested a breakdown of what this €5,700 is for, as the connection run is only a few meters and no roads need to be closed off, but are yet to hear back from Irish Water.

Has anyone been in a similar situation with Irish Water, or have any idea if this fee is standard, as it seems excessive to say the least.

Begs

2009_ wrote: »

Morning all,

We are a few weeks away from moving into a new building home, and are after getting a quote from Irish Water for our incoming water connection…which came in at €5,700.
To put that into context, our gas connection was around €250, and our electrical connection was around €1,900 (But we had to move wires and planet a new pole for this connection).
This price is solely for incoming water, our outgoing (foul) water will be an additional charge, which we are yet to be quoted for.

We have requested a breakdown of what this €5,700 is for, as the connection run is only a few meters and no roads need to be closed off, but are yet to hear back from Irish Water.

Has anyone been in a similar situation with Irish Water, or have any idea if this fee is standard, as it seems excessive to say the least.

We are just waiting on our connection to be sorted. Our connection is straightforward too but the engineer has had to do a site visit as the mains that service neighbours are running through our site. I hope we don't get such a big bill.

Our esb was €2,675 - it seems like lottery numbers when it comes to these connection / development fees.

FiOT

2009_ wrote: »

Morning all,

We are a few weeks away from moving into a new building home, and are after getting a quote from Irish Water for our incoming water connection…which came in at €5,700.
To put that into context, our gas connection was around €250, and our electrical connection was around €1,900 (But we had to move wires and planet a new pole for this connection).
This price is solely for incoming water, our outgoing (foul) water will be an additional charge, which we are yet to be quoted for.

We have requested a breakdown of what this €5,700 is for, as the connection run is only a few meters and no roads need to be closed off, but are yet to hear back from Irish Water.

Has anyone been in a similar situation with Irish Water, or have any idea if this fee is standard, as it seems excessive to say the least.

We got the exact same quote for similar connection, right at the road - nothing complicated.
We requested the break down which we got after 3 reminders and then took it to our local Fine Gael TD who in fairness could not have done more for us. Irish Water would not budge on it and we were trying in and around the time that the charges were after being halted for everyone else.
It really feels like we're making up the money that they're losing in charges to the general public. They'll get their dues somewhere!

In the end we just lumped it and paid :mad:

2009_

Thanks for the replies!
Figured there would be no budging from them at all...they really seem to be able to pull any figure out of the air and that's it.
The builder and architect we're using have both done similar houses in the area, all be it they were a few years ago, and could not believe the figure quoted. Our council contribution fee's were similar to the last house they built, but the connection fee's we're previously included in the council contribution.

@FiOT - Do you have any idea what your foul water connection fee was?

@begs - Fingers crossed the fees aren't as bad for you!

FiOT

2009_ wrote: »

@FiOT - Do you have any idea what your foul water connection fee was?

Haven't gotten that far yet and not really sure about it - barely able to keep up with researching what we are doing at the moment!

With the new percolation systems do you have to pay for water out? (probably a naive question)

Live at Three

We were quoted the same for water in, and waste water out.....10,000!

So 15 grand in total!

adrianm1234

Absolutely ridiculous prices. We quoted e4800 connection .like that mains runs along site and a metre under ground. A few years ago it was a group scheme and it was e550 connection.then the Co council took over and it went to e550 to do the same job .since then it's Irish water and price has jumped to e4800.it's an absolute disgrace . This along with the building regs that are in place and engineers gone mad making it up as they go along. It's a wonder any houses that were built without these regs are still standing.Back on track though. Irish water is a complete joke and a waste of hard earned money.

Badger2009

Irish water has not changed the connection fees. They are the same as when the councils looked after it.

There are two elements to the Irish water charge.

1. Connection Charge
2. Infrastructure fee ( previously known as developments contributions which were levied at planning stage)

The charges are the same as what the various councils charged before Irish water existed. I think it is based on whatever was in the council's development contribution scheme at the end of 2013.

It is complicated slightly by when planning was granted. If it was pre 2014 the council collect the infrastructure charge but if it was granted since 2014 Irish water collect it.

I was told Irish water are trying to change this and move to a standard charge across the country but that it is slow due the regulator/government interference.

In my opinion the councils charged far too much for connections as the money was going into a number of different projects some of which never even got built. I think a standard regulated charge across the country makes a lot of sense.

BryanF

adrianm1234 wrote: »

This along with the building regs that are in place and engineers gone mad making it up as they go along.
.

??
That's one thing engineers don't do.

elastico

FiOT wrote: »

took it to our local Fine Gael TD who in fairness could not have done more for us.

FiOT wrote: »

In the end we just lumped it and paid

So what did going to your TD achieve exactly

FiOT

elastico wrote: »

So what did going to your TD achieve exactly

In the end, nothing really.

He wrote a number of letters for us and seemed genuinely shocked at the cost of it but nothing came of it.

2009_

So in the end it turns out Irish Water don't do the connections for foul water...you have to out source it to a 3rd party company.
You will also have to pay Irish Water €400 for them to send a worker out to sign off on the work the 3rd party company do.

They gave us numbers for three lads who are local to us, and so far two of them have been back in touch.
One of them quoted just over €8,000, and the other was just over €4000...still waiting on the third lad to get back to us.

But best case scenario, it will be around €10,000 for incoming & outgoing water connections...and €12,000 for our "voluntary" contribution fee to the council, bargain!

Carrickbeg

2009_ wrote: »

So in the end it turns out Irish Water don't do the connections for foul water...you have to out source it to a 3rd party company.
You will also have to pay Irish Water €400 for them to send a worker out to sign off on the work the 3rd party company do.

They gave us numbers for three lads who are local to us, and so far two of them have been back in touch.
One of them quoted just over €8,000, and the other was just over €4000...still waiting on the third lad to get back to us.

But best case scenario, it will be around €10,000 for incoming & outgoing water connections...and €12,000 for our "voluntary" contribution fee to the council, bargain!

Any update on how you got on? I have water coning in but need to connect to sewage.