Electric and water bill in Greece (Athens)
For many reasons it might be worthwhile getting your name on the electric and water bill, especially if you own the property, but also if you are renting to please international banks and payment systems. Any of those bill normally constitute "proof of address" for anyone requesting such.
In order to transfer the electric bill the following documents are needed:
1. An electric bill from the previous owner/renter. In the top right corner it says which office services your area. In my case it was Aristeidou Protected content the center of Athens, close to Syntagma.
2. Original and copy of your passport.
3. If you don't own the property they will most likely need a copy of your AFM number.
4. A copy of the contract from the notary for the property you own. If you don't own most likely a contract filed with the tax office probably making it somewhat impossible for some people.
DAY 1: I showed up the at DEI office at around 11 AM and there were four to five offices. After a few rounds in the offices I was told that the first office to the right is the one for name changes on the bill. I tried to get a number to stand in line, but they had already closed the ticket dispensing machine so no luck that day.
DAY 2: I set my alarm for 7 AM to get there when they opened at 7:30 AM. I got ticket number 41. There were six workers in the place and after about 45 minutes I could calculate their efficiency index. On an average the group processed one client every three minutes or about 1 every 18 minutes per worker. This gave me some well needed breathing room to make some more copies for the water company. At around 9.45 AM it was finally my turn, but the lady's English skills were so poor that I was directed to someone else and had to wait an additional 10 minutes while she processing the current client. At 9.55 AM I was finally in my spot and we could start the process. After about 20 minutes she produced a piece of paper with my third name misspelled as my first name and my first name misspelled as my family name. A translator was quickly hailed from the general public and the correction process started. This was more complicated than the first setup and in one module in the computer it was impossible to correct it so we had to leave it like that. I expressed a wish to die to the translator who left unseemingly. A government translator showed up to replace her for some reason. They wanted to send me to the cashier to pay 20 Euros as a deposit and I informed them that if the line is two to three hours it would to be another day. They insisted I do it immediately so I proceeded and the line was only 15 minutes. Then back to the lady again who stapled my payment slip to the contract and gave it to me.
40 pages in total for them and I left with a stack of eleven pages! So much win for them!
At this time I was obviously up to steam, especially since the electric company was in the center of the building without wireless signal so I headed straight for the water company in Omonia. 12 Satovriandou is the location, but it's not the main office on the street, you have to go into the office to the right on the first floor. Here there were no lines so they quickly grabbed my copies and checked my passport. From a photo in my cell phone of the previous owner's bill she could swiftly gather the information needed. I misspelled my cell phone number on a form and she countered by misspelling my first name. After 15 minutes in total I was out the door with one single sheet of paper in hand and they had a stack of 28.
About Protected content in total including transportation. In the USA the same process takes about Protected content and it's all done online. With my crocodile tears Greece could waterslide out of the recession!
