GOSTILITSA
UTILITIES & TAXES
Information on electricity and water supplies, municipality taxes and where to pay bills.
ELECTRICITY
The supplier for this area is Energo-Pro. Your electricity meter will be in a box on a post somewhere outside your house. Quite often these boxes contain the meters for several households. If you have a new style box you should have a small key to access it. When my meter was connected to the updated box I was told which meter was mine and also which trip switch was mine. If my electricity goes off unexpectedly I was told to first check the trip switch in the box in case it just needs flipping on, before reporting a problem.
Meters are read once a month and the bill becomes available a few days later. You usually have about 6 weeks to pay the bill. For me the meter is read around the 9th of the month, the bill is posted around the 12th and then I have until the 25th of the following month to pay.
Click here to find out if you have a bill to pay and see how much it is.
You may be on a day and night rate for your electricity in which case you can make savings by running the washing machine at night for example.
April-October inclusive the cheap night rate is from 11pm till 7am
For the other months the cheap night rate is from 10pm till 6am
Sometimes there are planned cuts when maintenance to power lines is being made. This is usually from 9am till 4pm at most, but often just for an hour or so. You can check if there are any upcoming outages by clicking here (In Bulgarian only, so scan for Община Дряново and then с. Гостилица)
To pay your bill you will need your customer number which is a 10 digit number beginning 16000. You can pay at the shop in the main square in Gostilitsa, at the Post Office, at any EasyPay desk or arrange to pay by direct debit through your bank. (See bottom of the page for details of where to find these places)
WATER
The supplier for this area is called VIK (ВИК) which is an acronym for water and sanitation. Somewhere on your property you will have a water meter - for some it's located under a hatch in the garden, for others it might be indoors. It should have a bit of welded wire on a plastic case preventing it from being tampered with. Your meter will be read once a month and the person will usually tell you how many cubic meters of water you need to pay for. You can check any due payments on the Gabrovo website. Click here and scroll down to the bottom where there's a box to enter your customer number.
To pay your bill you will need your 6 digit customer number. You can pay at the shop in the main square in Gostilitsa, at the water office in Dryanovo, at any EasyPay desk or online by direct debit. In theory you can also pay at the Post Office but for some reason their system always claims I have no bill. (See bottom of the page for details of where to find these places)
GAS
At the moment there is no mains gas supply in the village but you can run appliances on bottled gas (LPG). You can rent a gas bottle from Vitogas (V-Gas) There are several places from which to do this, one of which is the Shell garage in Gabrovo between Kaufland and Lidl. The initial bottle costs 60 levs to rent plus about 26 levs for the gas (10kg). When the bottle is empty you then take it back and swap it for a full one, just paying for the gas this time. This way you don't need to worry about a bottle developing a fault. It is possible to buy bottles and then take them to a garage to be filled with gas. For cooking I think it's great value. I have a gas hob I use for a lot of my cooking through summer and also a larger gas ring I use when processing jars for preserves. I rented my first gas bottle at the end of 2014 and it still hasn't run out.
MUNICIPALITY TAXES
Every home owner has to pay a local property tax each year which is based on the property and number of residents (I believe). This goes towards things like refuse collection. It is due in March each year and prompt payment earns a 5% discount. As an example, my home which is 90 sq/m and has one occupant costs less than 14 levs for the year. (Compare that to your council tax in the UK!)
You pay your bill at the tax office in Dryanovo. If you have no previous bill just take along all your property documents and the lady behind the desk will sort it out for you. (If you own a car you will need to pay a municipality tax for that too. This can be done at the same time).
See below to find out where the tax office is.
A: CBA SUPERMARKET
There's an EasyPay desk in here. Look out for the EasyPay sign elsewhere as you can use any of them, even in other towns.
B: TAX OFFICE
This is at the far end of the pedestrian area and the sign outside says МЕСТНИ ДАНЪЦИ И ТАКСИ. Go up the first flight of stairs then through the white doors. You pay at the little window on the left. Opening hours 8am-12 noon and 2.30pm-5pm weekdays.
C: POST OFFICE
This is situated at the start of the pedestrian area. Go up the steps and through the doors on the left. Bills are paid at the first desks on the left. You can also pay for a PO Box address here. Go to the other desks for this. In 2012 it cost 5 levs for one month or 36 levs for a year. You will need to show your ID card to do this. You are given a key with your box
number and shown where all the mail boxes are so you can check for mail any time you like.
D: WATER OFFICE
The entrance is located round the side, just off the street. Go up to the first floor and through the door on the right. The payment desk is in the room on your left (tap on the window if no one is there) Opening hours Monday to Friday 8.00am - 1.15pm and 2.15pm - 5.00pm.