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A water pipe is leaking under my parents drive. The drive is a shared right of way for 3 other houses. The water company are saying that my parents and the other households have to pay for the repairs. Is this correct? I thought this is the case for private land but when shared access/multiple properties the water company is still responsible? Does anyone have experience of this?
where are you ? I believe that makes an odds
Scottish water recently told me that my water main as it only fed my house was my responsibility (after it burst in the -19 cold snap )
Had it fed other houses they would have come round.
Conversely the drains on my property feed 8 and Scottish water have fixed them previously
Thanks. Surrey.
I thought that if it was before the meter it was the water companies issue. Between the meter and the house it becomes the liability of the homeowner/their home insurer...
That’s what happened when our neighbours developed a leak under our shared drive.
The way I'm reading your post, it sounds like the access is shared, but the water supply is just yours.
As those with access rights are not interested in the supply of water, I could see this all coming down to you.
I thought that if it was before the meter it was the water companies issue.
Far from it. Trust me, we found that out the expensive way.
In England, from where it enters your land, it’s your expense. In the OPs case, it all depends on who owns the land as well as who is served by the shared supply. Legally it seems the water company can just say ‘tough luck, not our responsibility’, but there is more than just the law to consider. Get together to negotiate, and be ready to involve your local MP and press etc.
The question would be whose land it is, and whose pipe it is. Is it a shared supply for multiple houses or just one?
If it's a 'private road' arrangement, all the houses would generally share responsibility for upkeep of shared utilities underneath it. If it's your parents' drive, but others have right of access across it, it would normally be the landowners' responsibility. At some point the pipe will become the responsibility of the water company, as mentioned above, the rule of thumb is normally 'at the meter', but that's for properties bordering public roads etc, and a private road/land may add a bit more complexity to that.
Best thing is for them to have a chat with their insurer.
the rule of thumb is normally ‘at the meter’
No, this is just an urban myth. Water companies might elect to look after pipes up to the meter, it can be convenient for them to do so and they have the right to do so without permission, but it is not their legal responsibility to pay the cost, it is yours.
https://www.ofwat.gov.uk/households/supply-and-standards/supply-pipes/
In England, from where it enters your land, it’s your expense.
Not necessarily.
We had an old water main spring a leak under the house and the local water company came and disconnected it for free. They (and us) had no idea there was a water main under the house. I assumed the random pipe under the hallway floor was an old gas main and had been meaning to get rid of it at some point.
Water mains are different. Follow that ofwat link, they have a clear table and diagram showing all the variations of how legal responsibility is shared. Also, they very often will do work that isn’t their responsibility, and either not charge for it or share the cost and allow slow low repayment via billing. Getting the water company to bare or share costs that aren’t their legal responsibility happens all the time, hence, as I said, get everyone effected together ready to negotiate and if necessary bring in local politicians and press to help apply pressure if needed.
I would have thought the worst case scenario is that the cost is down to your parents.
Hopefully the pipe is shared with the others properties that share the drive in which case they are probably also liable.
The deeds will probably state who is liable for which upkeep costs.
Getting the water company to fix it FOC could be tricky.
get everyone effected together ready to negotiate and if necessary bring in local politicians and press to help apply pressure if needed.
Or pay for what you are responsible and stop trying to pass the buck onto someone else by throwing your toys out of the pram.
In England, from where it enters your land, it’s your expense
That’s partly true but only for sewage services, and only if they aren’t shared with another property.
That’s partly true but only for sewage services
Clearly that's not what the above links to UU, etc above state.
And not what I was told when I had a leak in the supply pipe to the house that ran 75m under one of my paddocks.
("Our liability stops at your boundary.")
There needs to be a little more detail from the OP
Is the water that is leaking going through a meter?
The pipe that has the leak does it have more than one property connected?
Which water company sends you the water bill? Search their website for free repair, most water companies offer a free first repair on service pipe leaks.
Are the water company offering to do the repairs and recharge or are they saying you need to get your own plumber?
Are they serving notice on a single property or all of them?
A bit more context..my parents are aged and people are trying to scam them on a regular basis, I wanted to check that this seemed legit which it does appear to be.
The water company says that there is a leak in the supply pipe to them and one other property. There is no meter and no physical evidence of a leak.
The water company haven’t said where the leak is but the supply pipe goes under the shared drive (access for 3 other houses but not the shared pipe household).
From your replies and some reading it looks like they can get a small contribution from the water company but that they and the other household will have to stump up for the majority of the cost. Insurance may be an option but that normally needs an event to claim against otherwise it’s just wear and tear.
So good news they aren't paying for the water so delay doesn't matter
Get them to register for the extra care scheme the water company will run for vulnerable customers, do that now with urgency
Find the rules for the water company domestic leak free repair
Is the supply pipe lead?
If it's a shared pipe it's shared liability with the neighbours so shared cost, the access road repair doesn't need to be to highway's standards
Once they have registered get them to ring up and ask for assistance firstly finding the leak and secondly repairing it. Most plumbers can't find hidden leaks and sometimes it takes specialist technology to do it well. 20 years ago I had someone using a gas injection technology that was very good which we did for free to get the leak repaired quickly. They should have some capability to locate a supply pipe leak
Finally, they have powers to "force" the repair of the leak. But bullying pensioners doesn't win friends so they won't do that. IIRC the worst they could do is get a court order to allow access to do the repairs and then recharge. If they play the vulnerable customer bit they should eventually get some help. If it's not going anywhere at the call centre level write in as written complaints get dealt with differently. If the access road is a artisan block paving they will only put tarmac back.
How do they know there's a leak if there's no evidence and no meter? If there is a leak do they know it's definitely under the shared access. Personally I'd be ignoring this if the drive isn't collapsing.
A few years ago a water pipe running down the access lane at the side of my flat sprang a leak ( North Yorkshire )
While the lane was shared, the pipe only fed 1 property, and apparently the responsibility for the pipe fell on that property from the point it left the mains pipe running down the front street as the lane wasn’t adopted by the council, ( not sure if that makes a difference though, at the time no one was )
Yorkshire water at the time performed 1 free repair per property in such cases ( but were not obliged to and explained that it was a “ courtesy “ that they offered this and not to expect further repairs if the same pipe burst again )
Several repair attempts later they gave up and informed the householder the pipe was “ knackered “ and required replacement which the house would have to pay for.
The good thing was the householder was free to shop around and found a company who quoted significantly less than YW and replaced the pipe by moling ( sp? ) it in.
Not sure if this helps the OP or not, but may be worth asking the water company if they do the 1 free repair thing.
Good luck