Massive charge for my own supply - Affinity water

dmdrabble

I live in a mid terrace. Our water supplier is Affinity Water and our water pressure is woeful. We are on a shared supply between 5 terrace houses.

My wife filled out a request form for our own supply and I now have a confusing quote from Affinity Water for £5500. It doesn't show a breakdown to justify this cost.

Affinity mention 'self lay', which states you can choose an accredited contractor to do the work. How do you choose one and is this worth the effort and are they usually cheaper? 

My neighbour has her own supply, (I’m the last in line) - hers comes from the front of the street and into her house. This is a few feet from my front door, so don’t know why the cost is £5500 to supply my house.

If I ask to be metered, will Affinity be obliged to provide me with my own supply? Some advice would be most appreciated. Thanks in advance.

reefer37

no if you ask to be metered they will look to see if they can fit one internally or at the point of entry as you are on a joint supply. if you can not have a meter fitted they will look to put you on assessed charges which is what they think you would use based on your household.
as for a new supply affinity would do they highway work and you would need to get a pipe from inside your house to the boundary point out the front of the street. you could get any approved contractor in to do your work but affinity would need to do their work in the street. ask affinity for break down in the cost. the increase cost work could be if they need to do road crossing and or work in carriageway depending on where they mains is. i would at least ask for someone out from their new supplies/developer service scheme to come out and chat and assess your needs. also some companies have a lead or metal pipe replacement scheme you could look into this.
also ask you neighbor how they got on and how they used for their part of the pipework.