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A Terrassa block has gone months without electricity: Sareb approved €80,000 to rebuild the installation
Around 70 people continue without a normalised electricity supply at number 293 Mossèn Àngel Rodamilans Street, in Ca n’Anglada, after a fire damaged the building’s installation in February. Residents say they have endured the situation for seven months, while Sareb, Endesa and Terrassa City Council try to resolve both the new installation and the contractual status of the homes.
The lack of electricity affects tasks as basic as preserving food, cooking or having hot water. Residents of the block explain that some use camping stoves and others have resorted to petrol generators on their balconies. During this summer's hot spells, they have also been unable to use fans or air conditioning.
The timeline, however, requires clarification. Neighbours place the origin of the problem in the February fire, which destroyed the electrical switchboard. Endesa maintains that the flats never had regular supply contracts and that on 5 May it completely disconnected the building after detecting irregular connections which, according to the company, posed a risk of electrocution.
The City Council also acknowledges that the installation had been in a precarious state for years. According to the Councillor for Social Policies and Housing, Lluïsa Melgares, the property had a temporary installation and the irregular connections ultimately created a serious risk for residents.
The main development is that an economic plan to rebuild the installation now exists. According to municipal sources cited by MónTerrassa, Sareb's committee approved on 10 August a budget of around 80,000 euros presented by Fecsa to carry out the work. The next step is to formalise the contract before the installation can begin, but no date has yet been announced for restoring the supply.
The electrical solution is also linked to regularising the building itself. The City Council states that Sareb took over the property in 2016 after the previous owner's bankruptcy and that it is being studied case by case which families can formalise affordable rental contracts and subsequently arrange a legal electricity supply. According to municipal information, the block has 23 homes and two spaces registered as offices in an irregular situation.
Residents, for their part, reproach Sareb for the slowness of the process and demand faster intervention from the City Council. The council says it maintains weekly contact with the owner and has been submitting families' documentation since March to advance their regularisation. Sareb had not publicly responded to the questions put by Metrópoli by the close of its report on 31 August.
The conflict also reached the municipal plenary session on 24 July. Javi García, councillor and the PSC's mayoral candidate in Terrassa, asked the government about the situation after meeting residents of the block. Melgares then defended the position that municipal services had been mediating between the parties for some time.
For now, the decisive fact remains pending: there is no confirmed date for the families to have electricity again through a regularised installation. Approval of the 80,000-euro budget allows the project to move forward, but the contract must still be formalised and the new infrastructure carried out.