Chile Forum

Hi folks,

just starting this thread to have a bit of a rant really. My MIL lives in a small town outside of Valparaiso where they have to have large containers filled with water to meet their needs (shower, washing up etc). Anyhow, my retired MIL spends around 40.000 CLP a month on water for a single person! I just can't understand why, in 2012, they have no provision to bring water to homes as in the big cities. I know we are in Chile and I have to get used to it blah blah blah, but a question, has the government never thought about assisting poor country folk, especially as my MIL lives right next to the sea? Or is it a strategic nightmare? Another thing, in terms of her electric. Chilectra have decided to pass on responsibility to several people in the town, e.g. my MIL pays a woman who collects money from people in her part of the town, not Chilectra, again, the price is horrendous for her electric, because the woman who has the responsibily is running it as a business, and is making money out of it at the cost of the residents. Problem is, there are certain individuals who refuse to pay and 'hang' their cables off the electric cables. As Chilectra now shirks all responsibilty, the 'business' lady is left to try and recoup the money from those who do not pay and I am sure she charges more for the law abiding citizens who pay up. In addition, people who come as weekenders also steal the electric which results in blackouts every weekend, so crappy expensive service and there is nothing you can do about it. Not fun for my 71 MIL who lives on her own. God this really gets my goat up!! Could you imagine British Gas giving responsibilty to individuals for the distribution of electricity and collection of money? Crazy!!

Is your mother in law living in a ilegal campamento??????

is the land she is on hers? with a deed?

The land she lives on is all legally hers! lol

ill let px explain the law of the land

can't wait! I love his posts

even if your mother in law owns her land (is she really sure about that), everyone around her may not. There are hundreds of those "beach communities" along the coast that have essentially people squatting on public land not to live so much (although they do that too) but to have cheap vacation homes. Thus, the guys poaching the electric on the weekend, almost none will have any sort of building permits and so on. so related infrastructure will never be given to them because the building is illegal to start, and trying to complain about the lack of infrastructure and so on is pretty impossible when they are not suppose to be there in the first place.

They are found from around La Serena to about the 9th region.

Now this might not be the case, but it sure sounds like it from your description of the area.

admin wrote:even if your mother in law owns her land (is she really sure about that), everyone around her may not. There are hundreds of those "beach communities" along the coast that have essentially people squatting on public land not to live so much (although they do that too) but to have cheap vacation homes. Thus, the guys poaching the electric on the weekend, almost none will have any sort of building permits and so on. so related infrastructure will never be given to them because the building is illegal to start, and trying to complain about the lack of infrastructure and so on is pretty impossible when they are not suppose to be there in the first place.
.

Two issues here. Well, more than two, but let's deal with two for now.

One is apparently that the service to the beach location is probably unauthorised, illegal, and hazardous. Or that is what it looks like from the initial description. Re-selling your electrical supply to another building operator, while sometimes practiced, is usually a violation of the terms and conditions for receiving utility service. And that sort of violation can get everyone on the string disconnected from the mains. Oh, and the poaching part can get you dead, but you already knew that.

Item two is that in a lot of places in Chile, the "building permit" is often not required by the electrical utilities themselves. They have their own requirements and those are flowed down from the national authority, the SEC, the Superintendencia de Electricidad y Combustibles. What is usually required, for new construction and often for even existing structures, is a fairly expensive process involving the "persona autorizada" described in another thread. For permanent service (not the temporary service possible during construction) you (or your chispas or persona autorizada/installer) have to buy a certified meter ( "remarcador") and submit that to the utility for recording and sealing, submit an approved electrical layout plan for the utility showing allowable conductors and switching, get resistance testing for the earth rod, and a bunch of other stuff I'll remember in a minute. But the point is that the building permit itself is often immaterial to the utility supplying the power, and even so-called "illegal" buildings can in fact get both gas and electric service without any sort of municipal or region permit. The famous Patagoniax complex, for example, located in sunny Puerto Bories, has industrial-strength electrical service for the wood/machine shop, all without no stinkin' government permits, but the process did require (1) proving that I own the place, and (2) preparing an electrical schematic through my licenced installer to the utility.

Now for the solution:

There are opportunities for what they, the SEC, call "regularising existing installations" (regularización Instalaciones existentes). That also normally requires the services of a "persona autorizada" or "licenced installer" because the average chilean electrician is incompetent and irresponsible in the eyes of the utilities and the sentient population, while the instaladores have licences they usually want to protect. Key point here, to add to your vocabulary: when talking to the electrical utility, when they say your "instalador" they are referring to the smart guy with the licence, not the guy pulling wires and drilling holes in the wrong places in your metal siding.

So how do you find a licenced installer who can do the work to get an existing structure/installation "regularised" so that service to that structure can be approved? Glad you asked. You start by finding an SEC-approved "licensed installer" and for that you can look at the database online, and pick one that has a current licence.

https://ww6.sec.cl/buscadorinstaladores/buscador.do

If I tell you any more, I'll have to start charging, or make you buy the book.

Thanks for the advice all and thank you for the link patagoniax, I will have a good read. Chile boggles my mind.

StrawberryHeartsForever wrote: Chile boggles my mind.

You are not the Lone Ranger: Chile boggles everyone's mind. Those who claim it doesn't, aren't playin' hard enough.