New water connection costing us £7000 !!!

Biteoutofapple1

Hi,
We have been quoted by the water company £5000 for a new connection as our current water feed has leaked under a neighboring property.

Some history on our house, the property is an old cottage and one of the first in the village. Consequential overtime houses have popped up surrounding it completely. We access our property by a private 25 meter track.(This is were we are hoping to put the new pipe up to the road for the new connection).

It all began 3 weeks ago. We were sent a letter from our water company stating we have a leak and we must sort it within 28 days. The leak in question is the water pipe from the main road through the neighbors property the pipe runs parallel under their 30 meter tarmac drive and garage.

This pipe has apparently in the past (previous owner) has had problem of leaking causing damage to the the neighbors property. I believe there was dispute between previous owner and neighbor to who was to pay for the damages. all was fixed and all was forgotten until now! :T

So...
We rang our insurance but they will not cover this :mad:
We paid £150 for the water company to come out and give us a
quote.:eek:

For a new connection its going to cost us a private contractor £2000 to dig up our drive in order to connect to the mains and create a new connection. The £5000 is what the water company want to charge us for the new connection !!!!!

The pipe is currently leaking 20 liters an hour, so far no visible damage to neighboring property.

Apparently the only way we can get the water board to pay is if we have lead in our pipes, which we do not.
We also cannot get to the current pipe as it is built and tarmacked over and we feel if we fix one section we are going to have constant problems that could result in flood damage that we will have to pay out of pocket for!

Please ask if you would like any additional information, if anyone could advise us on this we would really appreciate it :beer:

X

Cardew

I would contact the Consumer Council for Water http://www.ccwater.org.uk/

and ask them to take up the matter on your behalf.

Also contact local council(local councillor); the planning permission for the various buildings around your house should have addressed the potential problem of building over your water supply. If the leak is under your neighbour's property their deeds might make it their responsibility.

deanos

If your house was one of the first in the village i presume it must be lead ?

Can you take a picture of where your pipe comes into the property ?

Biteoutofapple1

Cardew - Thank you so much for the link, I will get in contact today with the water council and Councillor and see if there is any resolve. That is why I love this forum as there is noway I would of know what to look for on my own :beer:
There property is about 20 years old so do not know if that effects planning at all but will soon see

deanos Im hoping its lead, I have ordered my lead testing kit and will test first thing tomorrow morning. I've never wanted to drink lead so much in my life !!! :rotfl: The pipe going out our house is new(Copper) as it was added through an extension, just hoping that the pipe under the neighbor property is lead.

I'll update soon when i get more info, fingers crossed as I have noway of getting my hands on £7000!

Biteoutofapple1

Sadly no lead in water supply....:(

whatarethescores

Biteoutofapple1 wrote: »

Hi,
So...
We rang our insurance but they will not cover this :mad:
We paid £150 for the water company to come out and give us a
quote.:eek:

On the insurance point, is it that they won't cover the cost of a new connection or wouldn't even cover the repair and replacement work on the existing point (as it's not on land you have a 'legal right of access' to)?

On the water company coming out to give you a quote, you can also potentially take a 'self lay' approach, whereby you use someone other than the water company to make the connection. The water company still need to come and make an inspection on the final connection and will make a charge for that, but the combined overall cost may be cheaper.

Cardew's advice on going to ccwater is great advice and don't worry overly on the 28 day point to repair the leak, as a responsible water company should still give leak allowances etc beyond the 28 days so long as you've been proactive.