Shared Water Supply Leak

RS200

Good Morning All,

I've had a quick search of the forum to answer my question but haven't been able to find what I need. Myself and three neighboring properties have received a letter from Severn Trent advising us that there is a leak of unknown location on our shared water supply pipe and it is our joint responsibility to trace the leak and arrange repair. Now I understand that this is accurate and also understand that the liability for costs depends where the leak is discovered to be the best I can describe it is if your water goes through the section of pipe leaking to arrive at your house then you are partially liable for the costs. (Annoyingly we are on the end so if the supply pipe is leaking at our end it will all fall to us!).

After 14 days if the leak is not repaired the supplier will take enforcement action, complete the repairs and bill us all whatever they like to we no up front quotes and the "making good" will be tarmac only bare minimum repairs to make safe. Obviously a situation preferred to avoid but never being in this situation before I don't know the best way forwards.

So far I have:

Spoken with the neighbors who are happy to get quotes/arrange repairs etc but one of the houses is local authority and although the neighbor is helpful getting communication from the local authority is less than easy (I will of course keep trying).

My home insurance have advised they MAY cover it (helpful I know) and recover the costs as per liability after the work is completed from the other households, but again with one being local authority I am guessing I would need to seek their acknowledgement before going ahead?

I don't even know how much we could be looking at price wise A) To locate the leak. To repair the leak. Are we talking hundreds, thousands or more?

I also don't want to start the claim on my home policy if there is a chance that the leak could be on a section of pipe I am not liable for as our shared supply seems to come into the second house in the row then "T" of to the left and right. So I don't want to impact our home insurance just to find that the leak wasn't even our responsibility in the end.

Has anyone had a similar situation or can advise on what they think the best way to tackle this would be? And also if anyone has any ideas of costs that would be great (but I know that may be a how long is a piece of string type question).

Thanks in advance.

Bendy_House

I think it could be a good result having one of the properties being LA - they will usually be more certain to act compared to many private owners; they know their legal obligations.

I presume you are trying to tackle the LA directly yourself, and not relying on their tenant to do so (who, I suspect, has no obligation or liability here at all, beyond reporting the issue)?

Phone and pester the LA. Insist on being passed to the correct department should anyone prevaricate until you speak to someone who has the responsibility. Don't come off the phone until you are speaking to the right person. Back this up with an email (paper trail) outlining what the water board are threatening to do should the LA delay their response; give the date the WB need a response by, and add that all other households are ready to act.

The LA will have either their own teams of engineers, or will have approved local companies for this sort of job. Keep your fingers crossed, and it might not cost you anything.

NSG666

You might already have checked and ticked this one off but have you looked at what your water authority will and won't do for you? I live in Yorkshire Water area and they will carry out one repair every three years (I think) to the supply pipe between the boundary of your property and  the point the supply pipe passes into or under any buildings. My neighbour went through their pipe with a mini digger and couldn't turn the water off in the street but YW cam out and sorted everything foc- but not the trench for the new pipe.

If you do end up having to dig everything up then it might be an opportunity for each property to have their own supply rather than shared.