Water supply pipe question

Stevienoc

In my cellar I have an old lead supply pipe that comes in through the wall underneath my front door. It then runs to the rear of the cellar where it has a Tee junction. The left side of the Tee goes into the cellar wall towards one of my neighbours. The right side of the Tee has the pipe running to the right and then up out of the cellar but still continuing right until it goes into my other neighbours dividing wall.

So, in a nutshell, I have an old lead supply pipe running through my house that does not supply my house but probably supplies both of my neighbours. Does anyone know how I stand legally with this? Can I ask my neighbours to run their own pipes through their own properties so that I can remove this unwanted pipe? Who is responsible for the up keep of the pipe? Who pays for the damage to my property if it ever leaks? Do my neighbours have any rite of access to my property in order to maintain their pipe?

Any information of this subject will be apreciated as I haven't a clue where I stand at the moment.

Cheers.

Davesnave

There is likely to be a clause somewhere in your property's title document giving the neighbours an easement to have their water supply run through your house. If so, there will almost certainly be similar clauses in their title docs too. You cannot extinguish such a right without their agreement.

Regardless of that, if the supply has existed for, I believe, 20 years, unopposed, then your neighbours will have created an easement through use. As the pipe is lead, there would be little doubt that this is the case.

In any event, it would not be a great idea to attempt to remove the pipe, or do anything which could lead to a neighbour dispute, as this would injure your own interests should you wish to sell in the future, and the immediate legal situation might be costly too.

The responsibility for the repair/upkeep of the pipe resides with your neighbours, but you would need to provide access in the event of a leak or burst.

As the pipe is lead, it would be in your neighbours' interests to have it replaced, both for health reasons and because such old pipes fail, but people are usually loath to replace things which 'work' and cannot be seen. I must admit I was guilty of that myself in the last property I owned!

Gloomendoom

Davesnave wrote: »

but people are usually loath to replace things which 'work' and cannot be seen.

Too true. I'm just going through the same dilemma myself with some water pipes that appear out of a concrete floor from nowhere and don't turn off with the internal stopcock, only the street stopcock.

Stevienoc

Thanks for the replies although not exactly what I wanted to hear but I suspected something like would be the case. My property is one of a row of old mill cottages and I suspect that at one time the offending lead pipe also supplied my house.

Although I can't ask my neighbours to get their own supply pipes do I have any say in the routing of their pipe? Where it comes out of my cellar to the right, it runs along a skirting board before vanishing into my outside wall for a very short distance before re-appearing and then bending around onto the dividing wall and into my neighbours house. A short part of that pipe has been replaced by copper but it returns to lead just as it disapears into the dividing wall for next door. The join there has left two of those bulges where the pipes have been sweated together. The bulges stick out of my wall and look unsightly to say the least and the pipe running along my skirting board gets condensation on it at certain times of the year that does me no favours at all. Can I legally ask them to re-route their pipe?

Davesnave

Stevienoc wrote: »

Can I legally ask them to re-route their pipe?

You can ask them, of course, but I wouldn't expect them to do this willingly at their own expense. It's not the way of the world.

With their permission for interrupting the supply for a while, you could have the pipe re-routed/replaced at your own expense, which is the right way to look at this if the present arrangement causes a problem for you.

System

It may well be worth discussing with the neighbours. If you are no longer fed by this pipe, which I would have expected you to be since your neighbours seem to, then there is a fair chance that they have already got separate supplies and it is now redundant.

You have nothing to lose but everything to gain by asking them.

Stevienoc

I think that one of my neighbours might have had their supply replaced by an alternative pipe and if so that will be half of my problem solved. The other I suspect hasn't and won't be willing to do anything until he has to. He rents the house out and profit is everything.

Paying to move their pipe myself really sticks in my throat. If it was my pipe that would be a different matter but it isn't, it's theirs and because of an earlier problem caused by one of my neighbours that cost me, I'm loathe to pay out any more.

If I leave the pipe as it is and it busrts, who pays for any clean up and or damage to my property?

I do intend to talk to both neighbours. All I'm trying to do now is get my facts straight before doing so.

Thanks again for your replies .

Davesnave

Stevienoc wrote: »

I think that one of my neighbours might have had their supply replaced by an alternative pipe and if so that will be half of my problem solved.

The other I suspect hasn't and won't be willing to do anything until he has to. He rents the house out and profit is everything. Thats a reasonable assumption.

Paying to move their pipe myself really sticks in my throat. If it was my pipe that would be a different matter but it isn't, it's theirs and because of an earlier problem caused by one of my neighbours that cost me, I'm loathe to pay out any more.
Leave things as they are then.

If I leave the pipe as it is and it busrts, who pays for any clean up and or damage to my property? Your insurance company would probably have to cover this, because it's unlikely that others' insurance will pay out for damage entirely arising on your property. It would be classed as an accident, not negligence, unless you had pre-warned the landlord of a problem, which they then failed to fix. Having a lead supply pipe is probably not a classed as a 'problem,' whereas a small leak would be.

I do intend to talk to both neighbours. All I'm trying to do now is get my facts straight before doing so.
Perhaps a separate question in the 'Insurance' part of the Forum?
Thanks again for your replies .

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