Neighbour shares water supply - all water through my meter

emv · 10 March 2017 at 2:37PM

We recently contacted our local water board as our water usage was very high. They came out & said it must be a leak, didn't turn off stopcock etc. We had a plumber investigate further & it seems that our neighbour's supply runs off ours & has a shared stopcock (in my bedroom!). We also have an outside stopcock. There is what seems to be a leak outside her property. The water board were very apologetic & talked about putting it right & compensating us but the engineer has just called & said there's probably nothing they can do, it should have been sorted out when she purchased her house. She didn't buy it from us but from a developer who sold us our house.

Any similar experiences? I understand we can't turn off her water (she's developing the property, not living there at the moment so could that be possible?) Can we give her 30 days notice to get her own supply installed?

Norman_Castle · 10 March 2017 at 4:25PM

What has your supplier advised? Have you spoken to your neighbour about this?

Clearly you shouldn't be on a meter. Was the meter fitted before or after the supply was tapped? If this cannot be resolved ask about assessed water charges.

deanos · 10 March 2017 at 6:13PM

depends , if the property used to be one and now split without a new supply put in it is a private issue, you cant cut off a supply to a domestic property or insist they get a new supply

some more details would be helpful

emv · 10 March 2017 at 8:40PM

Engineer today said he didn't think it was a water board issue. House is 2 doors away from us. Whole village was private & ram off one meter. When we moved in 3 years ago we didn't pay water bill as the meter supplied all properties. Developer told us he was installing separate supplies to all properties in 2015 & we took over the bill at that point. Checked with water board & all other properties have separate supplies apart from this one.

footyguy · 10 March 2017 at 8:52PM

emv wrote: »

Engineer today said he didn't think it was a water board issue. House is 2 doors away from us. Whole village was private & ram off one meter. When we moved in 3 years ago we didn't pay water bill as the meter supplied all properties. Developer told us he was installing separate supplies to all properties in 2015 & we took over the bill at that point. Checked with water board & all other properties have separate supplies apart from this one.

Sounds like you need to contact you developer then.

Have you never spoken to your neighbour previously about this? That every other property on the development was getting an individual water bill. Presumably they got told too, yet for up to two years have not had an individual water bill ... yet presumably are no longer paying their share of the community one either???

They have not asked you, for example, if you have had a water meter fitted yet, as promised? As they haven't?

emv · 10 March 2017 at 9:25PM

Neighbour bought property last autumn, she's developing it so isn't there much. I do wonder why she hasn't enquired about setting up a water account. We don't see much of her & she's not very friendly or communicative. Planning to see what else water board say before contacting her. I'm not sure if she's aware of the leak or that it's her responsibility.

footyguy · 10 March 2017 at 11:09PM

And previous occupant/owner?

Edit: Oh seems like you have some issues with all your neighbours
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=72058112&postcount=8

footyguy · 10 March 2017 at 11:26PM

Just read your thread from last year
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5437857

So you bought the house in July 2014, and you also own the property next door which is a commercial premesis, and it now has it's own water meter (but
did not have one when you bought it)

When you bought, you presumably had a survey carried out for each property. What do those surveys say about water supply?

Because, if I understand that thread correctly from last year, there was a water meter just for your home from before when you bought it, but you didn't seem to know that until after the developer said he would install water meters for all the other properties.

What did your solicitor have to say about all this before you agreed to buy???

footyguy · 10 March 2017 at 11:30PM

So is this the 22 room cottage you live in, referred to here:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=69328411&postcount=16

And it sounds like it was previouly used for commercial purposes
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5292863

Essentially, you own two detached buildings with a driveway between them?
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5340453

emv · 10 March 2017 at 11:34PM

Effectively we own 2 houses, one had its own meter, one had a meter that also supplied other properties & we took it over when the developer separated the supply to all other properties (but it now appears he missed one, the one that still goes through our meter).

Solicitor said it wasn't her responsibility to check that there were separate meters (or that the meters onsite supplied only our property). The property that we seem to be supplying was owned by the developer until last autumn when it sold. It's confusing, I know.

emv · 10 March 2017 at 11:38PM

And no, the 22 room cottage is the property with its own water meter, now being converted into affordable housing. That one is fine, no issues with the water! But it is the building between our house (the former commercial building) and the neighbour on our supply.

Neighbour shares water supply - all water through my meter

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