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South West Water stopcock

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shieldssecurity

Hi,

I'm having a bit of bother with South West Water. I live in a row of 8 ex council houses and we are all fed from one, about 2", steel pipe which runs down the back of our gardens and is corroded to the point that it looks like this
water.jpg

and the water comes out like this . end of march pics of kids 003.jpg


One of the houses, which happens to be the only one that is still council owned was connected to the new plastic supply and once that happened, we were informed by the water board, after one of my neighbours accidently went throught the pipe whilst working in the back garden, that the steel pipe is our responsability and that they can't put water meters on it. If we want to be connected to the new supply it will cost around £700.00 per house plus the cost of running a plastic pipe from our house to the front boundary.

what my question is:

"should the water board's stop valve be just outside my back door in my garden or should it be on the boundary"

I am going to Court and want to get some facts together.

Thanks
 
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they supply all of you from the boundary via the shared pipe that you all own. With out seeming rude why on earth even mention crown court when its only £700 to have your own supply put in. Time for a bit of a reality check here after all 1 x solicitor times 3 hours probably equates to £700 plus and still no water main!! A bit of spade work and an approved plumber and you can lay your own pipe to the boundary and reduce the costs considerably
 
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lame plumber said:
they supply all of you from the boundary via the shared pipe that you all own. With out seeming rude why on earth even mention crown court when its only £700 to have your own supply put in. Time for a bit of a reality check here after all 1 x solicitor times 3 hours probably equates to £700 plus and still no water main!! A bit of spade work and an approved plumber and you can lay your own pipe to the boundary and reduce the costs considerably
Click to expand...

There is a stopcock at the bottom of the road and then there are stop cocks in all of our gardens.

I understand its only £700 but multiply by 7 houses and it soon mounts up. Most are pensioners.

Also there is nothing on any of our searches, when we bought our houses, that mention this pipe and that we are responsable for it.
 
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go and have a look at sww website, its all explained on there in detail as to who is responsible for what. youll find if you want your own supply they will quote you as an individual, you can also go to other companies for quotes to do the work which are much cheaper and then if you go back to sww they match the quotes ( or they did when i did this 8 years ago). if you feel your searches are at fault, remember what a search is for , its for things that affect your property ie new builds etc. the solicitor should have established from documents and the sellers who was responsible for water supplies and drains etc so u need to approach them if you feel youve been wronged on this area.
 
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SWW are only responsible for the water running up to the boundary (if the same as thames water) I have had houses with water meters inside the house and they said they are not responsible for the pipe running up to this!! they simply will not cover the pipe inside the boundary
 
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however there are ways of doing this and paying a lot less,
why take them to court, the pipe is your responsibility not theres. They have done there job by fixing there pipes, so why not get someone in to fix yours. put a 28mm or 35mm pipe from the mains and you will get great pressure, then stick a combi in and have some real nice showers, see the plus side of it.
 
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jase158 said:
however there are ways of doing this and paying a lot less,
why take them to court, the pipe is your responsibility not theres. They have done there job by fixing there pipes, so why not get someone in to fix yours. put a 28mm or 35mm pipe from the mains and you will get great pressure, then stick a combi in and have some real nice showers, see the plus side of it.
Click to expand...

Hmm won't the pressure still be the same no matter what size the internal bore? Flow rate should increase providing there are no restrictions further back along the main. The South West still has many mains made of sub standard of badly corroded materials.
 
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I am guessing that SWW fitted that valve sometime in the past for your local council using one of their standard issue covers. Possibly the council paid them for the work?
 
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Only to the boundary of the properties I think you will find. The one you talk of was most likely fitted to allow you the option of turning off the supply to your property without having to use the boundary one and shutting off the entire terrace.
 
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You don't say whereabouts in the SWW area you live but in a lot of rural areas in the West Country water mains were installed in a bit of a haphazard fashion, sometimes only as recently as the 1960s. They were often almost thrown in at poor depths across hard bedrock on the hurry up in poor quality materials. This is the legacy 40 or 50 years later when utility controls and regs have been changed or updated. To be fair most of the dealings I had with SWW lead me to believe they were quite a fair company. If you can put a good enough case to them you may get a more satisfactory outcome.
 
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shieldssecurity said:
Yes, I understand, but the cover on the stop valve still says SWW which indicates it belongs to them.
Click to expand...

It only indicates they did the installation at the time.
Being a Council house they were probably contracted to supply and maintain to the stop tap within the property.
With the transfer of ownership from Council to private, any responsibility SWW had within the boundary will have lapsed.
 
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have you tried asking for a water meter, its free for one of those! they may well compromise, dont ask dont get! if they fit a meter you only have to lay a new supply. you never know? a nice surveyor may help you out.
 
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