Neighbour possibly interfering with water supply

James-may

Happened to me as I noticed my water meter was ticking over despite having nothing running.
I had not long been in the house.
After some experimentation I spoke to a neighbour who seemed cagey when I asked him if he had a meter or a fixed bill and keen to get the door closed.
I turned my supply off at the meter, but withing a few hours I had the bloke at the door saying his water had gone off.

When I spoke to the water board the woman insisted it was impossible for 2 households to come from the same meter.
An engineer visited though as the neighbour had no water, I explained to him what I suspected and what the woman at the water board had said, he laughed and said it happens all the time and she didn't have a clue.

A few taps on a tablet and he requested I was moved to a estimated meter read.

Seems it's not as uncommon as people think.

coffeehound

Norman_Castle said:

125x4 is £500 per year. Enquire about getting the meter moved to inside your property. Mines under the sink and takes very little room. If the old meter is left in place the supplier may read both and question if water is being stolen as suggested but I suspect they will do nothing to pursue this. Similarly with the HA, its not worth the effort for them to look for evidence on your behalf based on a possibility he has tapped your pipe.

If you suspect your mains feed runs vertically through his property behind boxing in if you've got access at the top could an inspection camera view the pipe behind the boxing in? 

Thanks for the suggestions.  Sometimes cooking smells come through, so there could well be a gap around the pipe.  Will ask about having an indoor meter fitted.

coffeehound

Grumpy_chap said:

As with an energy billing query - has the bill jumped in value or has the consumption jumped?  Have you been taking regular readings?

I think it's real consumption.  I took the reading on moving in, and subsequent reads by the WB confirmed consumption in line with previous properties.  I took a reading this week to check the bill and it agreed, though had already gone higher.

coffeehound

James-may said:

A few taps on a tablet and he requested I was moved to a estimated meter read.

Good to hear they dealt with it pragmatically for you and @Keswick1uk.  The WB have given me the benefit of the doubt for this bill and reduced it to my previous usage, but I'll potentially get charged if it continues.

babyblade41

If it's thames water  they are worse than useless.  I've been waiting for n engineer for nearly 2 years. My usage for just 2 of us was nearly 200.00 a month which was ridiculous.

I was having debt letters and all sorts, they were going to take me to court for not having a leak dealt with when I supplied invoice and certification of a complete new pipe into the house to remove all leaks detected or otherwise.

Now we have agreed on 50.00 a month but we have an enormous amount of leaks from mains pipe in the village that can gush for days whilst they try and fix it 

[Deleted User]

There is no such thing as a Water Board. The water industry was privatised in 1989 and supply comes via a regional private company such as Thames Water; Severn Trent Water etc. Sadly, privatisation hasn’t meant greater competition: we all have to use the company that supplies our region.

nicmyles

James-may said:

Happened to me as I noticed my water meter was ticking over despite having nothing running.
I had not long been in the house.
After some experimentation I spoke to a neighbour who seemed cagey when I asked him if he had a meter or a fixed bill and keen to get the door closed.
I turned my supply off at the meter, but withing a few hours I had the bloke at the door saying his water had gone off.

When I spoke to the water board the woman insisted it was impossible for 2 households to come from the same meter.
An engineer visited though as the neighbour had no water, I explained to him what I suspected and what the woman at the water board had said, he laughed and said it happens all the time and she didn't have a clue.

A few taps on a tablet and he requested I was moved to a estimated meter read.

Seems it's not as uncommon as people think.

Exact same thing happened to me.

davilown

Turn off the stop…. at the meter it it moves you have a leak or someone else is using it.