Qatar Cool On The Pearl

Thanks for the info Jonners - good to know, as no-one tells us anything here! Hopefully, our building will get around to doing the billing for everyone soon. The agent never mentioned there being a flat fee for Qatar Cool when we moved in...he just said that elec/water was 'very cheap'' here, so we shouldn't worry about the bills being too high...we shall see....

Chizz, everyone in our tower had their meter readings done about 6 weeks ago. It was organised by our tower's management. The bill isn't really the cost of consumption but rather the cost of *having* Qatar Cool supplied to the apartment. Please don't just go on your units used as a basis for calculating what your bill will be or you are going to have a unpleasant surprise at the end of 2 years! There is a flat fee that everyone has to pay, even if you don't use the AC at all. Remember you have a supply of cold water so you at least have to pay for that. I can't remember the numbers of the top of my head but it was around 5500 riyals for the standard charges plus 'admin fees'.

Oh, I forgot about updating on the bill saga here at The Pearl....well, we have still not paid any bills since moving in in Aug 2011....DH got in touch with the agent who rented us the apartment and they asked us to get an official meter reading from the meter room on our floor. We asked if the agent could get this for us (as the room was locked) and they told us it would be 140 rials to get a reading!!! Ridiculous! By chance, one day, I noticed that the room had been left unlocked when I went to the rubbish chute, so I nipped in with my camera and took a photo of the reading. Presented this to the agent along with our water/elec number above the front door and DH did a calculation of what we owed from the meter reading he got from the elec company when we went previously/our moving-in meter reading that the agent had done. In the end the agent said that we would pay at the end of our tenancy (which ends in August 2013, as we have a 2 yr contract!) and we would pay the amount to the landlord when we got a final meter reading (as the bills are still in his name). This is just so strange that we have to wait for 2 yrs until we can pay our bill and something I have not encountered before from living in different countries...amazing too that the elec company doesn't cut your supply off for not paying the bills every so often...and the cost of 140 rials, just to unlock a door for us to take a pic of the meter reading is silly!.....How did you actually get a bill Jonners? Your bill seems steep to what we think we owe (if I do a average monthly costing and like you, we don't have a high rate of consumption units) and the agent seems to agree with us on the amount we owe. The LL owes about 450 rials too from before we moved in and he has agreed to deduct this amount from the final bill. Hope our calculations are correct, otherwise we are in for a high bill at the end of 2 yrs. We would of course, like to pay our bills quarterly, so that we know where we stand.....can't see why a billing system can't be started with someone coming round to read the meters and if need be, we pay the LL each quarter, if for some reason the bills cannot be put into the tenants' names...... <em>edited by chizz on 21/05/2012</em>

Funnily enough we got our first bill in a couple of days ago. For 9 month period, it was just under 6000 riyals. About 90% of that was the standard charges, we had very very few units of consumption (we are both out at work all day and the apartment is generally very cool anyway so not much AC needed). <em>edited by Jonners on 20/05/2012</em>

Refreshing this thread... Just wanted an update on those who didn't yet receive their Qatar Cool bill at the time they posted. How did the bill turn out? Affordable I hope. DH and I are keen to move to the Pearl and like everyone else DREADING the thought of being stuck with high bills! Any feedback would be greatly appreciated :)

Sorry off topic but I'm hoping Pearl residents will be able to help. Have a friend who may be moving to Doha later this year. Her DH said they will be given a apt on the Pearl, I believe it is developed by The Land. Anyone living in one of those apts? Any feedback would be appreciated!

Yes - will keep you updated if and when I hear anything or manage to get a bill...so maybe Jonners, all The Pearl buildings are in the same boat, bills-wise. I asked a few people I met here in the building about their bills, but they said that their company paid, so they didn't have any idea....don't like the fact that this could take a long time to get sorted out and some people could be hit by massive bills when they finally have to pay! Doesn't help that we had no idea how much the bills were going to be, before DH went to the water/elec building...could have been a big shock...luckily it wasn't!

Thats good to know Chizz. We moved to 14A in July and still haven't had a bill. We were quite concerned as friends in Zig Zag pay 900 riyals per month so fully expected a huge bill to be coming our way....Please keep us posted if you have any more updates. Happy Thursday :)

Hi there Well, we moved into an apartment on The Pearl in August and just recently DH and I thought about why we still had not received a bill. He asked around at work, got directed to some building, then another and was told that he couldn't pay the water/elec at the mo, until our building (one of the Sabban Towers) had worked out how to bill people?!. Apparently, the bills are in the name of the landlords and until the billing system can be sorted, we can't transfer the bills into DH's name or do anything! DH was told there would be a meeting to discuss this next Wednesday, but I won't hold my breath! We were told the bill was 490 rials from Aug up to now, which is mega cheap imo (compared to Dubai with it's ''housing fee'' - we were paying nearly AED500 a month there) and DH had the air con on a lot for the first few months. We have to pay the air con bills ourselves - I asked if bills could be included in the rent (at least for air con) and was told ''no''. I was a bit worried that bills would be high, but seems not! They even said that the 490 rials may not be all ours to pay, as some could be from before we moved in. I know all buildings on The Pearl may not be in the same situation and of course, it does depend how big your place will be, how much you use the air-con , etc. Ours is a 2 bed apartment, air-con on in hot months/always off in winter/hot water constantly on....just to give you an idea..... <em>edited by chizz on 05/01/2012</em>