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Hello, I'm a new poster to these forums and looking for advice. Please excuse the long post, I will try and keep it as short as possible but include all the details as it is messy.
My house is the middle terrace of an old Victorian block of 3. As I understand it, when water was installed in the properties, it was a shared supply that was T'd into each house at the rear via the gardens.
A number of years later, a spur from the main supply was run into the cellar of house no.1, then up through the walls to the top floor (2 storey), then it was channelled into the brickwork of the central wall and along through property no.2 (me) and property no.3 (my problem neighbour). A supply for each house was T'd in - literally a pipe appears out of the middle of the wall! - to provide upstairs water.
No.1 and No.2 have both since capped this supply off and run everything from the original supply downstairs.
No.3 has (we believe) done the opposite and gets all the water from this pipe running through the two other houses.
The problem I have is that last week I noticed the wallpaper in the bedroom looked uneven. I pressed it and it just fell straight off the wall. It was absolutely soaking and the wall was covered in a foul smelling black mould. I removed 3 strips wide before it was dry. I removed the mould with HG mould spray which left the room unusable for 3 days due to the smell. The plaster underneath had blown, so I knocked the plaster off and the bricks underneath that were wet through. By removing a few of these bricks I could see the pipe (the original lead) which was wet through. There was no obvious hole, so we removed a couple more. I have been told by a builder friend that a pinhole in lead can reseal itself so the source of the leak isn't obvious, but the pipe still keeps getting wet when you can hear water running through it so it is likely that it is on the back of the pipe that I haven't yet exposed as they dumped mortar onto it to keep it in place.
So here is where my problem lies. The only house receiving water from this supply is No.3. When told of the issue he shrugged and said it wasn't his problem and I should contact the water board. He made sure to tell me that I couldn't cut his water off. I had at that point had a conversation with the water board and they told me it was my problem and to speak to Environmental Health if the neighbour wouldn't comply (they couldn't/wouldn't tell me what he had to comply with btw). I called them back again after the conversation with the neighbour and a different advisor told me that the pipes were mine and to do whatever I wanted with them. I asked if that included cutting the supply and he repeated they were mine and we could do whatever. I thought this didn't sound right (although I admit I was very pleased!), so I asked if they could come out and look at the layout of the supply and advise what we could do to keep everyone happy.
The engineer confirmed the information I have detailed above, but did say that we couldn't stop his supply other than turning everything off at the main supply (with the permission of the neighbours) for all 3 houses to repair the problem.
To remove the pipe and replace it with something more modern, i would have to remove all the bricks the full width of the house which would involve demolishing built in wardrobes, the decor of 2 recently decorated rooms and probably the entire stairwell behind it. The water board man recommended taking the supply up into the attic and running plastic pipe in there and down back into the wall to the neighbour, however getting it up and down there would cause damage to not only the above but the very expensive and very beautiful plaster coving that we had installed 6 months ago.
Ideally, I would like No.3 to use his own supply that doesn't affect our properties but I know he will not agree to this - both on a cost issue but more likely, he is very petty and will do anything to cause problems for No.1 and No.2 - don't get me started on access and parking!
I want to sort it all out with as little contact with the neighbour as possible, I would even be prepared to pay to get all the pipes re-routed via our cellars but I don't even think he would go for that as it would help us all out and he really is that awkward.
Legally, where do I stand? Is the responsibility solely mine? It seems very unfair when I don't even get water from that source. I don't want to cut him off (I'm trying not to stoop to his levels) but the bedroom still smells horrible and the black mould was disgusting and likely a health hazard so I can't let this continue.
Any help or advice you could pass along would be very much appreciated, even if it is just to tell me that I'm stuffed as the nice water man said!
My house is the middle terrace of an old Victorian block of 3. As I understand it, when water was installed in the properties, it was a shared supply that was T'd into each house at the rear via the gardens.
A number of years later, a spur from the main supply was run into the cellar of house no.1, then up through the walls to the top floor (2 storey), then it was channelled into the brickwork of the central wall and along through property no.2 (me) and property no.3 (my problem neighbour). A supply for each house was T'd in - literally a pipe appears out of the middle of the wall! - to provide upstairs water.
No.1 and No.2 have both since capped this supply off and run everything from the original supply downstairs.
No.3 has (we believe) done the opposite and gets all the water from this pipe running through the two other houses.
The problem I have is that last week I noticed the wallpaper in the bedroom looked uneven. I pressed it and it just fell straight off the wall. It was absolutely soaking and the wall was covered in a foul smelling black mould. I removed 3 strips wide before it was dry. I removed the mould with HG mould spray which left the room unusable for 3 days due to the smell. The plaster underneath had blown, so I knocked the plaster off and the bricks underneath that were wet through. By removing a few of these bricks I could see the pipe (the original lead) which was wet through. There was no obvious hole, so we removed a couple more. I have been told by a builder friend that a pinhole in lead can reseal itself so the source of the leak isn't obvious, but the pipe still keeps getting wet when you can hear water running through it so it is likely that it is on the back of the pipe that I haven't yet exposed as they dumped mortar onto it to keep it in place.
So here is where my problem lies. The only house receiving water from this supply is No.3. When told of the issue he shrugged and said it wasn't his problem and I should contact the water board. He made sure to tell me that I couldn't cut his water off. I had at that point had a conversation with the water board and they told me it was my problem and to speak to Environmental Health if the neighbour wouldn't comply (they couldn't/wouldn't tell me what he had to comply with btw). I called them back again after the conversation with the neighbour and a different advisor told me that the pipes were mine and to do whatever I wanted with them. I asked if that included cutting the supply and he repeated they were mine and we could do whatever. I thought this didn't sound right (although I admit I was very pleased!), so I asked if they could come out and look at the layout of the supply and advise what we could do to keep everyone happy.
The engineer confirmed the information I have detailed above, but did say that we couldn't stop his supply other than turning everything off at the main supply (with the permission of the neighbours) for all 3 houses to repair the problem.
To remove the pipe and replace it with something more modern, i would have to remove all the bricks the full width of the house which would involve demolishing built in wardrobes, the decor of 2 recently decorated rooms and probably the entire stairwell behind it. The water board man recommended taking the supply up into the attic and running plastic pipe in there and down back into the wall to the neighbour, however getting it up and down there would cause damage to not only the above but the very expensive and very beautiful plaster coving that we had installed 6 months ago.
Ideally, I would like No.3 to use his own supply that doesn't affect our properties but I know he will not agree to this - both on a cost issue but more likely, he is very petty and will do anything to cause problems for No.1 and No.2 - don't get me started on access and parking!
I want to sort it all out with as little contact with the neighbour as possible, I would even be prepared to pay to get all the pipes re-routed via our cellars but I don't even think he would go for that as it would help us all out and he really is that awkward.
Legally, where do I stand? Is the responsibility solely mine? It seems very unfair when I don't even get water from that source. I don't want to cut him off (I'm trying not to stoop to his levels) but the bedroom still smells horrible and the black mould was disgusting and likely a health hazard so I can't let this continue.
Any help or advice you could pass along would be very much appreciated, even if it is just to tell me that I'm stuffed as the nice water man said!
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