Shared water connection

[jessybee]

Hi all,

i would really appreciate if someone could help me with this problem or suggest somewhere/someone I could contact to get advice. Apologies for the rather long msg but want to include as much details as possible.

We have recently purchased a terrace house and have to install absolutely all water connections and central heating as the house wasn't renovated for about 50 years and is in a right state.

The problem we just came across (which wasn't outlined neither in the survey or by our lawyer) is that we share a water connection with our neighbor.


All would be good but the pipe runs from outside the house, through our hallway, underneath the stairs, then onto our kitchen along the wall and through the wall to the neighbor - which is essentially her main water connection.

The pipes are very very old, unsafe and we need to remove them as they cant be hanging on the wall -- we also need to put kitchen cupboards there so the pipe location is horrible, not just for safety reasons.

We have contacted Thames Water, Ofwat and they are absolutely helpless and wont give us any advice.

Does anyone know if we have the right to move the water connection to her house to a more logical place, disconnect the water while we carry out all the necessary connections in our house?

We spoke to the neighbor and she is unwilling to cooperate, wont order a new water connection to her house and pretty much doesnt want to have anything to do with it.

All we need to know what are our legal rights and how we can proceed.

Any help, advice or directing us to right person who can help would be much appreciated.


Thanks a lot in advance!

 

[shneld]

I can’t help you sorry but the unwilling neighbor :angry_smile::angry_smile: isolate her supply for a few days that will teach her a lesson :angry_smile:


She will want EVERYTHING to do with it then.

 

[Resolute]

What would happen if you accidentally pierced the main and had to isolate in an emergency situation?

 

[shneld]

What would happen if you accidentally pierced the main and had to isolate in an emergency situation?

Well thats it yeah.

You say the pipe work is in a bad way.

If it was to 'fall' off the wall this weekend and she lost her supply, its just tough on her aint it boo hoo.

And while the pipework has unfortunalty 'fallen' off the wall, it would be a perfect opportunity to do the mods you talk about.

 

[Resolute]

Make sure you have a supply of bottled water to hand. You'd be amazed at how grateful people are to things like that when their water is turned off and when they're grateful they're more likely to be in agreement!

 

[Plumbstar Tom]

im the same, if they are uncooperative then I would just isolate it and play dumb, 'yeh, mines gone off as well' and then do the work.

In the eyes of the Water supplier they only care about the supply to your boundary so are not bothered about the shared supply.

I would turn it off and when you neighbour moans tell her she will have to go to her water supplier as they need to put a new supply in for her

 

[bcp]

Be careful. If your lease/freehold/deeds clearly state the adjoining property (your neighbour) has specific easements/rights of enjoyment of.....in this case her water supply and routing, then you will be breaking the law if you just disconnect or isolate her supply (let's ignore the water undertaker's regs for the moment). Check this aspect out first either by looking at the documents in question or if baffled, asking your Solicitor or Conveyancer. If no rights exist, I suggest that you advise her of your intention to disconnect IN WRITING giving her reasonable time to make alternative arrangements with advice to contact her Water Undertaker. Send this letter to her by recorded delivery. It would then be up to her to arrange re-connection/routing etc away from your property. If her property (sorry-somewhere I picked up a her but it might be a them or him) does indeed have water 'rights' through or over (there is a difference here) your property, then you have to accommodate those rights. In this case, the other property owner/s and you should split costs of any NECESSARY renewals. Competent person to do the work etc. A further thought is do you have (or both have) water meters? if so or would consider installing one at some point in the future, there would have to be separate ones installed for both premises and the Water Undertaker would NOT have any rights to site that (their) equipment on your land or within your boundaries (unless again rights already exist in the lease/freehold/deeds).

 

[Graham Hughes]

When we bought our farmhouse we shared the farm supply and paid him a reasonable fee for our water, until we could arrange a new supply.
I spoke with Severn Trent, our supplier, and they told me that shared water supplies are no longer allowed and we needed our own, we were hoping for a meter to be fitted in the pipe from the farmyard to the house.
Instead we had to dig a 500m trench, get it inspected and lay a new supply from the road......... Ouch!!!
I'm suprised Thames Water didn't tell you this.
If it were me in your situation I'd get my solicitor, who failed to notice this, to give me some free advice on how to get over the problem. We moved in, with full knowledge we didn't have our own supply, but when you fall in love with a place sometimes the heart makes your decisions!

 

[Spert]

Another solution to this problem is to locate the pipe coming into the property, and split it into two seperate feeds. You should then be able to re-route
the next door's supply out of the way and re-join where it enters the next property. You could also uprate the size of your pipe to increase the amount
of flow rate so at a later day you will be able to update the plumbing to accept a pressurised system. The time of the disruption of supply to your neighbor will be minimal. Have the pressure checked at the same time, and fit a pressure relief valve if needed on your side. Don't forget to update your shut off valves. Hope this helps.

 

[jessybee]

Thanks everyone for your advice.

We checked with our Solicitor and Conveyancer and there is no easement whatsoever. Is it legal to disconnect the water supply after serving them with a notice?

We issued the neighbor with a letter stating this as well as recommended either splitting the pipes outside our properties so each property has its own, separately run pipe (without involving Thames Water) AND another option for them is to get their own water supply. If they are not willing to sort it out with our help we gave them a notice of 30 days after which we will disconnect the connecting pipes that run through our hallway/kitchen........ after they got the letter he harassed us with violence, verbally and was VERY abusive towards us!!! A total nightmare! Police was involved and now we are sick and tired with it all.

They are not willing to talk let alone cover/share ANY costs. Completely ignorant and keep saying it is not their problem.

In couple of weeks the 30 days notice for disconnecting the water supply will apply. Unfortunately we cannot afford legal help and our insurance doesn't cover it so fingers crossed we are not breaking the law. We were reasonable trying to offer solutions etc but came across a wall!

Anyone has any suggestions? (apart from "accidentally" damaging the pipes - which is not a bad idea after all)

Thanks a lot!

 

[Gray0689]

You can't cut of there water you will be in trouble if you do

 

[Gray0689]

Are you paying for your neighbours water????

 

[Spert]

Sorry you are having this hassle....it happens, but do not let it deter you from what you want. I have come across this problem before with clients and my thread above has solved it. Do the work in your house and then shut the water off to connect the two supplies together, making sure you have connected lever ball valves to your supply. I would not entertain putting valves on your next doors supply, if he gets a leak in their house then he will have to find a way of shutting it off. I would also put another shut off valve where it will be accessable above ground, say behind/in a kitchen cabinet.

 

[Gray0689]

Another solution to this problem is to locate the pipe coming into the property, and split it into two seperate feeds. You should then be able to re-route
the next door's supply out of the way and re-join where it enters the next property. You could also uprate the size of your pipe to increase the amount
of flow rate so at a later day you will be able to update the plumbing to accept a pressurised system. The time of the disruption of supply to your neighbor will be minimal. Have the pressure checked at the same time, and fit a pressure relief valve if needed on your side. Don't forget to update your shut off valves. Hope this helps.

Why would they need a prv?????

 

[Howsie]

Put a gate valve on their connect and turn it down a little. You'll get better flow/pressure

 

[Spert]

If you check the incoming water pressure and its above 3.5 bar, a Prv is advisable. If you wish to install uptodate showers these usually require a maximum working presssure of 3 bar. I have come across incoming mains pressure up to 8 bar. My own house has 6 bar incoming main pressure.

 

[Gray0689]

You said pressure relief valve
You must of just wrote it wrong then
You ment pressure reducing valve then