As you haven't had any responses from people living in Almeria or Granada provinces, I would say that to the best of my knowledge water supplies and charges, and how rubbish disposal is paid for, are things that vary between individual Ayuntamientos rather than on a provincial basis. In my own municipality (in Málaga province) domestic water supplies are handled by the Aqualia water company and our supply is metered. There is no standard "fair usage" allowance, we are just charged for what we use. We are a couple living in a 2 bed property and our water bills (during the 16 years we have lived here) have always been around the €15 per month mark (bills are issued every two months so pay around €30 each time). We do not have a pool though.

As far as waste disposal is concerned, yes we have the communal bins sited around the town where residents deposit their rubbish in (food waste is only supposed to be put in the bins during certain hours, which here are 7.00 pm to 11.00 pm from October to March and from 9.00 pm to 11.00 pm from April to September, but there are no such restrictions for the recycling bins provided for glass, plastic, paper and cardboard, etc). There is also a number to ring if residents want to have bulky items like old furniture collected from their homes (the service is free) but in practice a great many people just dump things at the side of the communal bins which is unsightly at times, and the Ayuntamiento remove them from there, or sometimes they are "salvaged" by the people who make a living from collecting things like scrap metal or just people who can make use of them. The Ayuntamiento also has a waste disposal site (punto limpio) where things like building rubble can be taken to be disposed of. Here all waste disposal charges are covered by the annual IBI bill (same as Council Tax in the UK but much lower), but in many other municipalities a separate charge is made for waste disposal (basura) in addition to the IBI bill.

 

As you haven't had any responses from people living in Almeria or Granada provinces....

ah that's great Lynn - really appreciate your help! Just wasn't sure if the figures might be in the hundreds, or what way it worked. This give us a good idea now anyways!
Thanks again!

 

I will add my 2c now.
We are in the Valencia/Alicante area and our water is provided by Hidraqua which is council run. We get 5 cubic metres free and then pay for the rest via the meter.
Again ours is billed 4 times a year and is never over €40.00 (I was paying more than this a month in the Uk in 2020)
Bins here are the same a Lynn said and so is bulk collection (and yes people just dump stuff).
Our 'bin' charge is separate from the IBI and is €145 a year payable in June I think. They empty the bins every day during summer and six days a week during winter.
Our IBI is around €300 and happens in September.
It all comes out by DDR so Im not sure of the figures or dates, but again we were paying £170 a month in the UK for council tax in 2020...

 

I will add my 2c now.
...we were paying £170 a month in the UK for council tax in 2020...

wow! that was some difference alright! Thanks a million for your help - it's really great to get an idea of these figures to help with our budgeting. Really appreciate that

 

I once found a document online outlining how the Catastro calculates the IBI value of a property and it was incredibly detailed, even such things as how many facades abutting the street a house has can affect it. My old house had 3 which was one reason why I always thought my bills were higher than neighbours in similar sized houses that were attached to other properties on each side. IBI bills in urban areas where more amenities are provided by the Ayuntamiento are always higher than those in small villages or in the campo.

Strangely enough, Barrie, the amount I pay in IBI (€447 per year but it is due to go down by a tiny amount both this year and next according to announcements by the Ayuntamiento) which includes waste disposal is almost exactly the same as you pay for your separate IBI and basura bills. Like yourselves we live in an apartment and we also have to pay a separate bill for what they call "tasa de caruajes", that is being able to drive into and out of the entrance to the community parking garage and having street parking prohibited across the entrance. That is 10% of our IBI bill so another €44 per year. I don't know if your Ayuntamiento does the same? People in individual houses which have a garage also have to pay for a "vado permanente" if they want parking prohibited outside the entrance to their garage, but I don't know how much they cost.

 

I'm in a small town in Cadiz. It's a relatively large detached house and the IBI is €360 a year, sewage disposal €120, waste disposal €110, and water (not privatised here) about €100 - it used to be half that but it went up last year. We also pay €16 a year for a no-parking sign on the garage door. Collection of large items by the ayuntamiento is free.