To expect notice before neighbour switches my water off?

[PolitelyFumingNextDoor]

NC and will try not to out myself in the detail 🫣

I live in a maisonette. The stopcock valve that is in the pavement in front of our building controls the water for both upstairs and downstairs maisonettes. I understand there will be occasions when the water will need to be switched off to allow work to be carried out, but am I being unreasonable to expect to be told when this happens? Ideally given notice too?

On a previous occasion my neighbour had a plumber who switched off my water, I could hear someone banging upstairs so I assumed there was someone working upstairs but I'd been home and noone had let me know. On that occasion I messaged my neighbour to ask if she was having work done and asked to be told in future before the water was switched off. On that occasion I was WFH so I could have filled the kettle before it was switched off for example.

This morning at 9am my water went off again, I saw the plumber and said I needed it back on immediately as I needed to use the shower and I had an appointment to get to. When it wasn't put back on I went to the front door and my neighbour came and said I'd told her I didn’t want to know when she was having work at her house.

A couple of months ago she messaged first thing in the morning when I was on school run to say someone was coming to read the meter and asked me to reply immediately to say I'd read the message. I replied in a hurry as I was about to spend 20 mins driving and had a Zoom call to attend as soon as I got home. My reply was along the lines of we have our own meter, your meter has nothing to do with me. She obviously got the hump and said fine, I'll never let you know anything again. When I realised she'd taken offence, I replied to apologise if my message had offended, explained I thought she wanted access to my property to see the meter and explained she didnt. I said I didn't need notice for people going to her house unless it would impact is, mentioned the water being switched off, and the times her window cleaners have come into my garden and scared the crap out of me and the kids.

Am I being unreasonable to expect to be told when my water is being switched off? And to expect my neighbour to mention to her plumbers that the stopcock controls both properties? Even in an emergency, where notice can't be given, I expect the courtesy of someone knocking to inform me. They literally walk past my front door to do it.

I think you’re handling this the wrong way, go over her head.

Get the contact details of the company who did the work and complain that they shut off your water. They can’t just be relying on her word they need to undertake due diligence.

Secondly, if you have a landlord complain to them directly, who owns the maisonette? Presumably there’s some agreement about how shared utilities are handled? Whatever arrangement you have clearly isn’t working and she isn’t the sort of person who is going to be considerate of you.

In fact, I’d be petty as fuck and give her a taste of her own medicine at least once.

However

• Illegal Action: A neighbor cutting off your water is unlawful. Only the water supplier has the right to restrict supply, usually for debt, but they cannot legally cut off your water completely.
• Emergency vs. Convenience: If a neighbor turns off your supply for convenience or a dispute, they are violating your property rights.

For convenience = to carry out works to the supply.
So, whilst plumbers may not turn up when expected it’s on the owner to ask / advise a time frame when water may be off if you have a shared supply.
The time frame might be a day with further advice asap.

We’ve had our water turned off without notice by a developer who told us it would be off for about a week and then promptly went on a tea break !!!
They were forced to turn it back on again by the water board and only allowed to turn it off for short periods each day proving need with the water board. Funny how they were suddenly able to work around it in the end

( farm with a long access in, shared supply to road )

Water companies CANNOT restrict access for debt in the UK.

I assume your response is AI slop?

That's very different from a plumber doing private work. The plumber/neighbour has no legal right to cut the water in the first place.

Also any company will actually give notice when they can.

Illegal action and Emergency vs convenience is indeed from AI
The rest is all me

I wouldnt be rude and call it slop
though 😁

The rest is all correct and relevant to the thread as the water board aren’t disconnecting OP…so that’s all good then 👏👏

I mentioned this morning that she should check the terms of her lease as she was required to let us know if she was having work that impacted us and her faced dropped and she wasn't as defiant as she'd been up until that point.

I'm weighing up whether I should use my insurance legal cover to get some advice, but considering we would like to sell soon I wonder if we just hope it doesn't happen again. I guess a neighbour dispute that required formal action would have to be disclosed to any potential buyers. Annoying as it is, I know others have it a lot worse.

We both own, so no landlords and my lease is 900 years so no dealing with the freeholder either.

Mmmm 🧐

another not nice post from you
are you on a mission

Theres no call for rudeness.

My builder accidentally drilled through a hidden pipe in my bathroom wall and the whole place was being flooded so he turned the water off. How much notice should I have given my neighbour?

That’s an emergency though

Another ex- water company employee here. Ideally the stop tap in the street should only be used in emergencies (for example the internal stop tap has failed) It’s the property of the water company and not the home owner. If you damage it the water company will ask you to pay for it. All properties should have their own stop tap inside the property to isolate their supply. This isn’t a legal requirement though. I’d suggest your neighbours plumber fits an internal stop tap for her whilst he’s got the supply switched off.

If you share the stopcock, then who pays for any leaks ?

a) does your neighbour actually know it is also your water being turned off
b) how is the bill split or is there a different meter ?

Aye, your neighbour is a dimwitted arsehole sadly. The shower situation sounds infuriating.

Sounds like a shared supply. When the building was built the contractor should have laid in 2 independent supplies that can be turned off independently of each other. Both should have their own internal stop tap (usually under the kitchen sink) and external stop tap where the supply branches off from the main in the road. It sounds like the builders didn't pay for separate supplies and built or converted the building and added the second set of kitchen and bathroom supply to the existing.
Do you suffer low or fluctuations in pressure when your neighbour uses the water? That's often a tell tale sign.

Your neighbour sounds like a nightmare. You are definitely not being unreasonable to expect sufficient notice of your water supply being turned off with the exception of emergencies where you should at least be informed and given a timeframe of when to expect it back on.

If you’re planning to sell soon I would avoid going down the legal route

It is possible to buy a lock for your wheelie bin, if you are sufficiently bothered
https://amzn.eu/d/053nM4f3

As for the water issue, I would definitely check your lease and consider complaining to the freeholder.

Definitely she (or plumber) should knock on your door to warn you. However I voted YABU because “notice” isn’t always possible - I had a leak and plumber had to sort it same day. I texted neighbour and plumber knocked on door, but we couldn’t give “notice”

Of course you should be given notice so that you can put some water aside for when it's cut off.

Yes but even if there is no notice I would expect a text from my neighbour apologising and explaining why it was necessary and when it will likely be back on.

it doesn’t sound like it was an emergency in this case though so the neighbour could have seen a warning text and say likely hours it will be off

We've had similar Op and when I investigated further found that it was illegal apart from the water board for anyone to turn off access to somebody else's water supply without their permission.

We started off by being really accommodating but after a couple of weeks lost all good will and were much more "no that doesn't work for us". Neighbours ended up changing plumbers and the second plumber actually worked out that he could stop the water supply from the stopcock in their house 😂

I lived in a maisonette many years ago with a wanker neighbour downstairs. He disconnected our internet more than once and was generally a nightmare. YANBU and I can only recommend moving to a freehold if you can!

We live in a freehold mid terrace house and still share a stopcock with our next door neighbour

https://contendlegal.com/consumer/water/your-water-supply/is-it-illegal-to-cut-off-someones-water-supply-in-the-uk/

As far as I can see what your neighbour is doing is illegal and you need to raise the matter with your water company

Yes! We had to have it turned off at the mains once, affecting two other properties, because of a burst pipe. I was desperate to let them know whatever I could, as soon as I could, and very apologetic. I’m always mortified to be putting someone out 😬