Severn trent forcing me and neighbours to fix a leak

TheRizza

This is a bit of a long one but i've just had a letter from severn trent saying that there is a leak on my property and I need to fix it...


It started in february when I was having my kitchen fitted and my plumber said there is a slight sound on the incoming pipe even though the stopcock is off, and advised me to call severn trent.

A guy came with a listening stick and said yeah there is ill get a team to dig it out and carry out a free repair.

It took 3 months for them to come out as free repairs are not priority and everytime I rang they would say "you could always fix it yourself."

anyway after 3 months 2 guys cam who clearly didn't want to be there found the pipe in my alleyway no sign on a leak but a slight sound, the pipe is too big to qualify for a free repair, the leak could be anywhere between here and the next 6/7 houses fed off the same stopcock and its our responsibility to fix it..

Now i wasn't that bothered as there are no signs of leaking on my land but all of a sudden i feel like i'm being hassled to get it fixed, i've had 2 phone calls one quite rude threatening to force access if I don't get it repaired. Me and 7 houses have had letters telling us to get it fixed and notify them when it's done.

Has anyone had any similar experiences with this and what usually happens? I'm sure we will be forced to get it fixed but most houses have tenants and I don't know how they will enforce this? Does home insurance usually cover this?

Furts

The crux is what status does the pipe with the alleged leak have? Severn Trent believe it is a private service pipe. If so, it appears that it is shared between 8 properties. If this is correct then you are all jointly liable.

Now for a possible twist which is moving out side my knowledge area. For decades it has been accepted practice to lay a feed pipe to a stop tap then take individual pipes from this to each property. The crux is when were your properties built? Then, why were they not done like this?

If Severn Trent say an error was made by the builder, or anything similar, then you have won the battle. Severn Trent had a duty to inspect the pipes and sign them off before the connection was made. It does not matter if the builder did not request the inspection, because without an inspection, no tapping of the mains should have been sanctioned by Severn Trent.

Hope this helps.

TheRizza

The house was built in 1903, its a victorian terraced. The original supply to my house is lead but in the alley it is a newer plastic pipe.

I'm not sure how the pipes are laid but I know they don't have any plans as to where they run.

Furts

TheRizza wrote: »

The house was built in 1903, its a victorian terraced. The original supply to my house is lead but in the alley it is a newer plastic pipe.

I'm not sure how the pipes are laid but I know they don't have any plans as to where they run.

With a newer plastic pipe you should all have separate service pipes. Plastic pipes do not leak, joints can and sometimes do. For this reason it has been a requirement for decades that the service pipe from the stop tap to the consumers stop tap inside their home is laid as one continuous pipe with no joints.

You now need to determine what has happened when your plastic pipe, or pipes, were laid. It might be that these were bodged. Who inspected and signed off this work? What was the role of Severn Trent in this?

Severn Trent should have inspected the plastic pipes to ensure that they complied with Water Regulations. However, if nobody notified them that the work was being done then in this instance they cannot be expected to know.

Ken68

Similar fault was detected here. My neighbour and I were jointly held liable, though the leak was found to be next door. Don't know what it cost but Anglian Water got a lad to do the job,(unmarked van and trailer) turned out to be where the lead pipe joined the plastic.
It took a visit from a surveyor to pinpoint the leak.

elsien

I had similar. Letter from ST telling us the communal pipes needed replacing as they were beyond repair and if we didn't get it sorted they would do the work then bill us over 1k each. We had a few weeks to let them know if we'd found an alternative approved contractor and to get the work done. A neighbour checked with a solicitor who sai yes they could do that. So I started getting quotes - these were cheaper, but the sticking point was companies wanting one person responsible for the whole bill - they didn't want to bill and chase 7 different householders. And I didn't want to pay thousands then chase absentee landlords for their bit.

In the meantime another Branch of ST came and did a repair so I phoned to tell them and it all went quiet. Then out of the blue ST turn up and replace the whole communal pipe and the feed into our individual houses, free of charge. I think we just got lucky that one branch didn't know what the other was doing.

Edit - the only way to remove the communal pipe work in the alley at the back of the house and to give each house an individual supply would be to bring the pipes in through the front with either pipes running along the skirting, or drilling through the concrete to take the supply under floor to the back of the house. Neither of these options were viable - I would guess the OPs situation is similar.