Monday - July 06, 2009

A HELLISH WEEK AND THAT’S NO LIE.  WATER LINE AND RIGHT OF ACCESS AND HEADACHE

Wrote to Drew about this but wasn’t sure if too many would be interested. Had other thoughts and so decided to share this pain in the butt problem which may be on the way to being solved. We hope.

Some background.

Our house, the one with the red X was built in the 1920’s.  I think about 23 or 4.  It’s called a dormer bungalow and there were three left on this street of about 9 houses. The bungalows were built by the same builder and so naturally were mostly pretty much the same inside and out.

When they were constructed, all three had their water tied together.  Which meant that if the water supply had to be cut off at one house, all three had it turned off.  It does get a bit confusing so I’ll leave that part of it there.  Except to say that till now, that had never been a problem. The downside though was that the cut off should you have a flood, and we did in 2005, was in front and at the far side of the house next door.  Not at the front of our house. Also, back in those days there weren’t any water meters.

A dentist and family bought that house in the foreground. It’s name is Avalon. The house, not the dentist.  His name is Steve.
Steve paid £470,000.00 (almost one million in American dollars at that time about two years ago, when the dollar/pound ratio was $2 to the £1.00)
The house, being very old and unsuitable for a large and young family, was demolished in April.  A sad sight for us next door.

Once the house was sold a notice of demolition intent was posted outside on the gate.  I had not yet met the buyers, but seeing that notice and knowing they had been by the place once or 2wice, I wrote out a note letting them know we had spare key to the place.  I also posted a message in large print informing them about the water supply.  Later on, I met Steve and reminded him about the water.  Time passed, lots of time. In fact, about two years as plan after plan apparently was turned down by the planning council to build his dream house.  After awhile he hired another architect and things then moved on from there.

On meeting his architect, who brought the plans to the two houses affected by this new one, I told the architect about the water supply. “ Oh really “ says he.
I’d no idea. I’m glad you told me.  Well hell, I told YOUR CLIENT! I even put it in writing.  Between you and I BMEWS, I think the old fox did know.
So anyway, he promised to see to things and he did.  The old house came down and in the process while using their digger, they dug up our line which broke.
They fixed it the next day and as I write it is still above ground and in a safe area (fingers crossed) awaiting developments.
And here’s when and where things got tricky.

We received this letter from the architect last week.

Whilst on site today I was shown a section of pipe from the water supply that serves your house and Avalon.  We are installing a new supply to AVALON as the existing supply is in such a poor condition, rusting galvanised iron laid down only one foot below the ground level- it should be two foot six inches below, With the new supply in place we will cap off the junction with the pipe currently serving both properties.

The red arrow you see shows the approx. line where our water supply runs across their property. It continues for several feet on their side of that far hedge before running into our house on our side of that hedge.

OK.  So we called Southern Water.

We were informed that FIRST, we need to get an application costing £269 (that’s damn near $300) and then they send someone to survey and then WE have to find the people or a qualified plumber to put things in place and that cost can be £1000 and that’s a starting figure. The water company contracts out ppl and all they do is come out and install a water meter, which this house never had. And all because our line runs under the property next door. What a nerve wracking mess we had a week to think about.

Everything much confused and up in the air but the bottom line is that if we can’t somehow get the new owners to pay the bill then we’re in the dog house for lots. We see it running to £2000 minimum and especially as we have tree/roots thing here too.

Now here’s a REAL catch 22 for ya. If we leave the old pipe in place, after all, till now there hasn’t been any problems since the late old lady bought this place in 1964, if we leave it and there is a leak, we would need to get the permission of the new owner next door to rip up his front yard and or driveway. Like he’d say sure thing.
BUT ... legally he can not “deny us access to water.” BUT ... our ins. ppl say they can’t cover repair unless he gave permission. So where would that leave us?

A lucky break but we still have to see where it’ll lead.

Someone tipped me off that I should call Southern Water back and tell them there’s a “New Build” next door, and we needed to see an inspector soonest.
We were given todays date and sweated a week till early today.

The inspector informs us that in no way are we responsible financially unless we ourselves undertake to actually move the pipe to a new setting, that is take on a new connection from the main across the street directly to the installation the new guys are putting in.
He says we have two options.  WE CAN LEAVE THE OLD LINE IN PLACE except of course the part now exposed would have to be buried. By them. And just leave it there.  That pipe has never been a problem, and even though it wasn’t far below ground, it never even froze in winters past.  The inspector said that
we could suggest to the new owner that should the pipe actually give way, it will of course flood under his property, undermining his yard or driveway. So it’s doubtful he’d refuse permission to do a repair even if it meant digging up his property.
The other option is to get a quote and offer to pay for a small section of new pipe that runs under where the driveway will be.  He thinks the new folks or builder could easily cover that since the builder is gonna have that equipment on site anyway. And the cost should not be much. But we are not obligated to do that. He quoted a couple of regulations and some law, all of which is in our favor.  He also spoke to the architect and the site supervisor telling them the same.
Also, he thinks the architect was blowing smoke at us with regard to the tree roots and all that as he says they work through and around that all the time.
What the architect is trying to do is keep his clients cost down at our expense.  I was further informed that the guy bought an old house with whatever problems come with that.  The water supply to our place was in place long before he bought the property and so it isn’t our fault they dug it up or that the houses were tied together.

Called the architect today to see what might be worked out but never got a call back.

Stay Tuned.

Posted by peiper     on 07/06/2009 at 11:07 AM   
Filed Under: • Blog Stuff • Personal •  
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