It is not unusual for people not to pay their water bill in Panama.
For years.
Common for Panamanians that is.
I’m not sure you could get away with that as an expat.
One of our maids had to pay IDAAN (the water company) the $600 she owed before they would fix her pipes. It is not unusual for people to rack up a 400 or even $1000 bill with IDAAN.
Of course, IDAAN won’t necessarily come out and fix your pipes even if you have paid in full.
Which means, if you buy property in Panama, make sure the owners pay off any outstanding water and electricity bills BEFORE you sign a sale contract.
But I have never heard of IDAAN cutting off someone’s water before. Even if they haven’t paid for years.
(FYI – a residential water bill is somewhere between $3-$9/mo – depending upon where you live and if you get a discount. )
MultiPlaza Mall’s Water Is Cut Off
But IDAAN did cut off the water to the huge and very popular MultiPlaza Mall in Panama
It happened yesterday, October 28th.
They owed $48,000.
Wow!
Maybe they just thought they could continue to skate by. Or maybe someone ticked off a bigwig at IDAAN.
But I imagine the other big malls checking their IDAAN balances today.
A spokesmen for the mall said they were preparing a statement in response to the situation.
Hum.. I wonder what explanation you could give for owing 8 times more money than most Panamanians earn in a year.
Source:
http://newsroompanama.com/
