Downstairs landlord appears to have turned the water off...

robedha1

I live in a first floor rented flat and have no water this evening. The flat downstairs is empty so I popped next door to see if they have water and they do. It would appear that the landlord for downstairs has been in and turned the water off, obviously not realising that it will affect me. I have phoned the water company and there is nothing they can do. Do I have any options/rights in this situation?

mysterywoman10

What a nightmare for you! Sounds as though you are on the same stopcock as the empty flat or he has turned off the wrong water by mistake!

All you can do is phone your own landlord/letting agent in the morning (unless they have an emergency number) which having no water comes under. Hopefully it will get sorted in the morning!

If it doesn't get sorted asap phone your Local Council and they have enforcement powers in this situation.

Hopefully in the meantime your other neighbor will fill up a kettle or a couple of saucepans for you!

G_M

Do you know where the stopcocks are? Are they perhaps in a communal area? Under the stairs? By the front door? It is unusual for a single tap within one flat to turn off the water in another flat.

An alternative (unlikely, but worth checking) is that it is the external mains stopcock. This is usually located in a manhole cover in the pavement just outside.

Owain_Moneysaver

It is probably a shared stopcock. Most people would check the water is turned off (and if it's been turned off because of a leak etc it would be fairly obvious if it hadn't been).

So if you turn downstairs back on, it could cause a lot of damage downstairs.

agrinnall

This happened to me once. The stopcock for the flat I was renting (a self-contained annexe to a larger property containing other rented flats) was in the main building, and somebody turned off the wrong one. Resolution was simply a matter of getting access to the taps, findout which one was mine, and turning it back on. Hopefully the same is true for you.

If you don't know who the LL for the empty flat is you can find out from the Land Registry by paying (I think it's now reduced to) £3.

robedha1

It's been 3 days with no water now. Rang the letting agent on Tuesday and they said they would send someone out but they kept insisting on going on about the pilot light when I clearly stated it was the water.
Luckily I went to my brothers after work yesterday and had a bath there because I still had no water when I got home last night.
Rang again this morning and they said they would pass the message on when the property office opened. Yeah right!!
Got home tonight and still no water. Rang again absolutely fuming. Eventually got passed to a customer care manager who said that because the property maintenance department closes at 6pm there was nothing he could do but arrange to have someone come tomorrow. Apparently they have no out of hours emergency office, when asked what their tenants would do if they had no water I was told they'd call a plumber. That's no help to me.
I asked about compensation as I have to go to my brothers 8 miles away to have a shower, and can't even flush the toilet or make a cup of tea in my own home. I'm also limited as to what I can make for my dinner. I got told that he could neither say yes or no to compensation and that he would call me tomorrow. I pretty much slammed the phone down at that point.

Apologies for the rant but I am so angry right now.

mart.vader

Originally Posted by mart.vader
I see you still have no water.

Look, if someone has turned off your water in another flat, it is really, really simple - someone needs to get access to the stopcock and turn it back on. If you don't have access, then whoever does have access, needs to get their finger out and unlock the door, and open the stopcock.

If the water has been turned off for some reason, like a leak in the other flat, then the leak needs to be fixed. It might have just been turned off as a precaution, but that doesn't help you.

The Water Co can't and won't do it. (edit: and neither can a plumber. ) If the LL or the letting agent can't get a key, then they will need to get a locksmith in or break the lock.

There are other methods, but they are temporary at best, and risky. and not to be advised if there is a simpler and safer solution, and they may not even be possible. (Like, for example, your next-door neighbour allows you to connect a hose from their tap to your tap, both taps opened. As I said, RISKY !!, particularly if the hose comes undone.)

Your LL and LA can faff about for days, passing the buck, and the stopcock will still not turn itself on.

Sorry to tell you the absolutely bleeding obvious, but there it is.

G_M

First off, you must get this documented in writing. Yes, a letter, addressed to the landlord (see tenancy agreement) at the address "for the serving of notices." (see tenancy agreement)

State the problem, then list/recap the date/time of each report you have made, (whether email, text, phne etc) and the reply (with name) you received each time.

Then list the costs you have incurred to date (travel to brother, meals out as you can't cook, hotel...etc).

Finally insist that you hget a response immediately on xxxx phone, followed by a letter, outlining exactly what action the landlord plans, and when.

Say that if the problem will continue for more than another 24 hours you expect to be provided alternative accomodation, since a property without water supply is 'uninhabitable' (Landlord & Tenant Act 1985 Section 10).

At the end put "cc Environmental Health Dept, XXXX council") and send a copy there.

having posted the letters:

1) Ring the EH dept.
2) ring/fax a copy to the agent so they know it's on the way and they better get their fingers out!

robedha1

mart.vader wrote: »

I see you still have no water.

Look, if someone has turned off your water in another flat, it is really, really simple - someone needs to get access to the stopcock and turn it back on. If you don't have access, then whoever does have access, needs to get their finger out and unlock the door, and open the stopcock.

If the water has been turned off for some reason, like a leak in the other flat, then the leak needs to be fixed. It might have just been turned off as a precaution, but that doesn't help you.

The Water Co can't and won't do it. If the LL or the letting agent can't get a key, then they will need to get a locksmith in or break the lock.

There are other methods, but they are temporary at best, and risky. and not to be advised if there is a simpler and safer solution, and they may not even be possible. (Like, for example, your next-door neighbour allows you to connect a hose from their tap to your tap, both taps opened. As I said, RISKY !!, particularly if the hose comes undone.)

Your LL and LA can faff about for days, passing the buck, and the stopcock will still not turn itself on.

Sorry to tell you the absolutely bleeding obvious, but there it is.

The problem is the flat downstairs is currently vacant and is managed by a different agency to mine. I leave for work before 8am and don't get home until after 6pm so I can't do anything but phone during the day. I know that once the stopcock is opened I will have water again but short of breaking the law there is nothing I can do except keep calling and complaining.

mart.vader

G_M has detailed the legal method to you. I hope your phoning and faxing and the threat of alternative accommodation costs, produces the desired response, within an acceptable time.

pimento

I might have downloaded the land registry docs now and seen who the owner was and contacted them either by visiting (if they are in the book) or by registered letter. Or, I might have effected entry by any means necessary to access the stopc0ck.

What if it had been a gas leak?