South West Water stopcock

[shieldssecurity]

Hi,

I'm having a bit of bother with South West Water. I live in a row of 8 ex council houses and we are all fed from one, about 2", steel pipe which runs down the back of our gardens and is corroded to the point that it looks like this


and the water comes out like this .


One of the houses, which happens to be the only one that is still council owned was connected to the new plastic supply and once that happened, we were informed by the water board, after one of my neighbours accidently went throught the pipe whilst working in the back garden, that the steel pipe is our responsability and that they can't put water meters on it. If we want to be connected to the new supply it will cost around £700.00 per house plus the cost of running a plastic pipe from our house to the front boundary.

what my question is:

"should the water board's stop valve be just outside my back door in my garden or should it be on the boundary"

I am going to Court and want to get some facts together.

Thanks

 

[lame plumber]

they supply all of you from the boundary via the shared pipe that you all own. With out seeming rude why on earth even mention crown court when its only £700 to have your own supply put in. Time for a bit of a reality check here after all 1 x solicitor times 3 hours probably equates to £700 plus and still no water main!! A bit of spade work and an approved plumber and you can lay your own pipe to the boundary and reduce the costs considerably

 

[shieldssecurity]

they supply all of you from the boundary via the shared pipe that you all own. With out seeming rude why on earth even mention crown court when its only £700 to have your own supply put in. Time for a bit of a reality check here after all 1 x solicitor times 3 hours probably equates to £700 plus and still no water main!! A bit of spade work and an approved plumber and you can lay your own pipe to the boundary and reduce the costs considerably

There is a stopcock at the bottom of the road and then there are stop cocks in all of our gardens.

I understand its only £700 but multiply by 7 houses and it soon mounts up. Most are pensioners.

Also there is nothing on any of our searches, when we bought our houses, that mention this pipe and that we are responsable for it.

 

[lame plumber]

go and have a look at sww website, its all explained on there in detail as to who is responsible for what. youll find if you want your own supply they will quote you as an individual, you can also go to other companies for quotes to do the work which are much cheaper and then if you go back to sww they match the quotes ( or they did when i did this 8 years ago). if you feel your searches are at fault, remember what a search is for , its for things that affect your property ie new builds etc. the solicitor should have established from documents and the sellers who was responsible for water supplies and drains etc so u need to approach them if you feel youve been wronged on this area.

 

[shieldssecurity]

Hi,

Thanks for the advice

 

[jase158]

SWW are only responsible for the water running up to the boundary (if the same as thames water) I have had houses with water meters inside the house and they said they are not responsible for the pipe running up to this!! they simply will not cover the pipe inside the boundary

 

[jase158]

however there are ways of doing this and paying a lot less,
why take them to court, the pipe is your responsibility not theres. They have done there job by fixing there pipes, so why not get someone in to fix yours. put a 28mm or 35mm pipe from the mains and you will get great pressure, then stick a combi in and have some real nice showers, see the plus side of it.

 

[pimp]

however there are ways of doing this and paying a lot less,
why take them to court, the pipe is your responsibility not theres. They have done there job by fixing there pipes, so why not get someone in to fix yours. put a 28mm or 35mm pipe from the mains and you will get great pressure, then stick a combi in and have some real nice showers, see the plus side of it.

Hmm won't the pressure still be the same no matter what size the internal bore? Flow rate should increase providing there are no restrictions further back along the main. The South West still has many mains made of sub standard of badly corroded materials.

 

[shieldssecurity]

What I don't understand is why is there a stopcock in my back garden with an old metal cover with SWW stamped on it.

 

[pimp]

I am guessing that SWW fitted that valve sometime in the past for your local council using one of their standard issue covers. Possibly the council paid them for the work?