ᐅ Disconnection of utilities before demolition – costs/experience?

Hello everyone,

We are currently planning to demolish and rebuild an old house, and first, we need to disconnect the utility lines (electricity via overhead pole, plus water and gas). We contacted our utility company, which owns the lines, to inquire about the cost of disconnection. Now we have received a quote and, honestly, we are quite surprised by the amount.

The disconnection is estimated at around €9,500 (about $9,500), broken down roughly as €700 (about $700) for electricity, €5,300 (about $5,300) for gas, and €3,500 (about $3,500) for water. The gas and water costs are split between excavation work and material costs, but the quote doesn’t include detailed information on what exactly will be done. The existing house is located directly at the street, so there is no 20m (65 feet) or similar length of pipe from the main line to the house that would first need to be removed. For the rebuild, we will at least reuse the water line exactly, and since we are installing an air-to-water heat pump, we won’t need gas anymore.

Honestly, we didn’t expect such a high amount. When I search online (at least I don’t find many results), the costs seem to be in the lower four-digit range, but not nearly five digits.

Does anyone have experience with this or any recommendations on how to handle it? It feels like we are completely at the mercy of the utility company’s “pricing power”...

Thank you very much and best regards,

Your topic "already exists" – my reading tip is: https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/sicherung-der-versorgungsleitungen-bei-abriss.38486/

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Water cost us 20 euros. A valve on the street was closed, and that was it. We exposed the water pipe ourselves when digging the foundation pit. Electricity cost just under 250 euros. The grid was managed by Eon. We did not have gas.

11ant schrieb:

Your topic “already exists” – my reading tip is: https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/sicherung-der-versorgungsleitungen-bei-abriss.38486/

Thanks, it’s a similar case, but since we are building with a basement, our conditions are slightly different.
The demolition company will also handle the civil engineering work for the new house afterwards, so the civil engineering costs from the utility provider shouldn’t be charged twice in the end. We will contact the utility provider on Monday.

schubert79 schrieb:

Water cost us 20 euros. They closed a valve on the street, and that was it. We exposed the water pipe ourselves when excavating the foundation pit. Electricity cost just under 250 euros. The network was managed by Eon. We didn’t have gas.

How far did you have to excavate the water pipe?
The current building on our site is built right at the sidewalk, so the pipe in the basement is basically just a short section from the sidewalk (main line) into the building.
I understand the electricity costs, especially because of the roof support, but the fact that gas and water would cost around 9,000 euros here really makes me uncertain. What alternatives are theoretically available? Without any experience, it seems the utility provider could just as well charge 15,000 euros or more if you depend on them because they are the only ones allowed to do the work.

@motorradsilke recently dealt with a case involving demolition and reconnection

We had the electrical connection moved to a utility pedestal, which also makes temporary construction power easy to arrange and the pedestal remains in place. Cost was about 1000€. Is your electricity supplied by overhead lines? If so, this unfortunately won’t help.
The water supply was temporarily shut off by closing the valve, which was free of charge. However, it will need to be restored when the new connection is installed, costing about 1000€.
We do not have gas.