Water authority threatening enforcement action

darwins_mum

There is a leak in the private supply pipe shared by me and 6 other houses. I own one of these properties, one other is owner occupied, 2are empty, and the remainder are tenanted.

My water authority have advised that they will not come out and detect where the leak is located, and have instructed me to claim on my house insurance. My house insurance company have advised that if I make a claim (and pay the excess of £350) their leak detection specialist will only ascertain whether the leak is within the boundary of my property, and wont go into the other gardens to see whether the leak is further down the line. I am at a loss what to do. One of my neighbours states that she has not had a copy of the letter. Another neighbour has advised that she rang the water authority and was told that they do not have a leak. Another neighbour has stated that she is outright not paying for any leak to be repaired unless forced to do so.

The water authority have sent a text to state that they will be sending one further letter prior to enforcement. To my mind, it would make sense for it to go to enforcement and have the authority carry out the repairs and bill us individually for this instead of me shouldering the cost of claiming via my insurance and being no further ahead. Is anyone able to advise of the pros and cons of proceeding down this route please? cheers

Sam_666

What is "water authority"? Water Police?

Anyways, water supply company is responsible for pipes up to entry to property, usualy water meter.
Pipes after that are then responsibility of freeholder.

So, can you clarify if properties are freehold or leashold and where leak is in refference to responsibility line.

elsien

This happened to me.
Seven Trent’s enforcement letter which was sent to all the properties basically said to get it fixed by X date or otherwise we will do it and we will charge you Y amount.

It wasn’t a simple leak, all the shared pipe work to the houses needed replacing.

I did try to get some other quotes but because the cost was split between several houses most of the approved companies declined to quote. They basically wanted one person to be responsible for the bill, whereas I needed it to be split between all the properties and paid individually, if I could get agreement from them.
I did get one quote, which was cheaper per house then Severn Trent but because I wanted it to be done properly and my neighbours just wanted the cheapest option via cowboy builders we couldn’t agree.

So that only left the enforcement route. We got lucky though because seven Trent didn’t know their !!!!!! from their elbow and a different branch came out and replaced all the communal pipework for nothing.

darwins_mum

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81862317#Comment_81862317

Thank you, yup I am dealing with Severn Trent, and going round in circles. it looks as though the only option left to me is to let it go down the enforcement route. I hope our outcome is as favourable as yours!

elsien

Have to be honest, I think we just got lucky. The quote that I managed to get was a fair amount cheaper than Severn Trent but the practicalities of getting reluctant households to agree just made it unworkable.