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 stay on a row of 10 terraced houses. We each have our own stopcock but mine needed replaced so plumber needed to switch off the main supply for all 10 houses. It was urgent but not an emergency as stopcock was only weeping so plumber put some sealant on it…we put a letter through everyone’s door with almost 2 days notice that it would be off for approx 1-2 hrs and what time and the plumber came back at 11am so that most people would be up and showered etc. He wasn’t comfortable doing it without notifying people as they would all be contacting Scottish water going bananas 😂 in the end it was only off for about 20mins and no one mentioned being inconvenienced.
Your neighbour is really inconsiderate…however I do think you’re being a tiny bit unreasonable complaining about the window cleaners.

Of course you know you're not being unreasonable. So you're asking the wrong question.

The question should be something like:
What is the best way to order her workman off my property if any should re-appear?
Would it be worthwhile for me to try to get the city water department to write to her to explain the meters?
What a good plumbing problem to invent, so I can have the opportunity of shutting off her water without notice, to get her to understand the issue?

Little bit more detail about the window cleaner incidents - I appreciate they will need to enter my garden to do her windows and I don't have a problem with that. These are a few of the many things that have happened with her window cleaners (as with plumbers and gardeners, it's never the same person twice).

1. I look out of my kitchen window to see a rough looking bloke in MY garden having a good look at my neighbours upstairs windows. This was about a week after another neighbour had an intruder climb up the downstairs porch to climb in an open upstairs window. I was on the verge of ringing 999.
2. Sitting on my sofa, boob out, feeding my newborn baby when a bloke with a ladder turns up right outside my patio door.
3. Toddler in living room while I take a shower and she comes in screaming to say there is someone at our back door.

I don't think it's unreasonable to expect someone to knock on my front door and ask before entering my back garden.

Turn it on next time she turns it off , if it floods her house that’s her problem , she can and should have installed a tap to put a block between yours and hers anyway . The cheek of her not even telling you is shocking

This is what I was going to suggest.

She is my upstairs neighbour, so her house flooding would end up being my problem too 😭

I live in a downstairs maisonette.

I discovered we have separate stopcocks - the one for upstairs is in my flat.

Have you checked everywhere in case you have the same setup? Then you can randonly turn her water off as revenge. Or, more helpfully, know for next time how to turn just hers off.

I don't think there is one - the owners before us did a lot of work on the layout and I wonder if there could have been once upon a time but then got removed when they changed the kitchen layout? This was 15-20 years ago though. We need a plumber to do some work so when he comes I'll get him to have a look. I don't really know what to look for. I'm pretty sure we looked when we moved in, or our plumbers looked, and they couldn't find one inside for our house. Her electricity comes through our flat.

Yes I agree that’s what I said. But “notice” implies several days warning which isn’t always possible.

She’s extremely inconsiderate.

I would talk to your water company, it's highly unusual not to have your own stop cock- what happens when (very shortly) you have to have a water meter?

Find out about this. It could be the answer. Plus have you got your own water meter? Sounds silly but may be helpful..

Whilst you are wanting to move, I think splitting the water supply would still be a good idea. This would prevent any further problems with future owners.

Not much helpful to add but we used to live in a maisonette with the same stopcock arrangement you describe. Only the only access was under our neighbours’ front hallway so we couldn’t get access to turn the water off if they weren’t in! Luckily we got on with them well and always liaised if anything needed to be done which involved turning off water. These were purpose-built maisonettes too (built c 1905).

We have our own water meter in the kitchen so we only pay for the water we use. Assume she has her own water meter too.

Thanks for all the comments. I might text her on Monday to inform her it's unlawful to switch off my supply and ask for assurance that it won't happen again.

When it happened, she said she hadn't done it, as if it was nothing to do with her as her plumbers had switched it off. I think I'll add to my message that it is her responsibility as the homeowner to inform anyone working on her house that the stopcock impacts both properties.

In an emergency situation I understand notice can't be given, but I'd still expect to be informed as soon as reasonably possible. This situation wasn't an emergency.

The solution is simple. You need ti have sime
plumbing work done

I'd be knocking and saying, "You have 2 minutes to get some towels out. I'm turning the cock on for long enough to fill the kettle and some pans."

Also, it you were to sell at some stage in the future, it would be better to have split supplies. I would consider it an investment instead of an expense.

Well it all sounds perfectly normal when people live in flats and maisonettes. My work takes me into situations where people live in such properties, and I live in a purpose-built maisonette (I've lived in a purpose-built flat too) and I have frequently found that people who live in them are the very sort of people who should never, ever live in them, due to their unarguable belief that their way of living is the correct one.

No, it's not ideal that someone turned the water off without saying, but then in defense of that person, they were scolded by the sounds of it for mentioning the water when it came to having the meter read. The stop tap outside my boundary switches off two properties, but we do have individual stop taps in the footpath outside my front door, and another main stop tap in each of our respective bathrooms (I'm ground floor). This is a common situation in maisonettes, even purpose built ones, where services for the top flat go through the bottom. In my flat the main sealed fuse from the electricity supplier for the upstairs flat in in my meter cupboard, and the mains water supply pipe, along with the main sewerage pipe, comes down in my bathroom too.

The stuff about the wheelie bins is just crazy, but again there's a whole lot of live & let live that needs to take place when living like this. My lease tells me explicitly that I have to allow full and easy access to my front and rear gardens for any work that the upstairs flat owner requires doing - I have no say in the matter. Luckily I have great neighbours above me here, at a previous address they were hell on earth due to their completely distorted sense of entitlement, something which became apparent when they frequently off-loaded to me all their other dramas of how the world was against them. If they'd lived on a island in the middle of nowhere they'd be complaining that the fishes were swimming too loudly.

If you do sell your property, legally all of the above disputes will have to be logged. Its quite clear on the form. If you don't, and they come to light after the fact, you can be sued.

She’s a selfish freeloading cock. YANBU.

Why would she think you’d want to know about her meter being read? Was she being deliberately obtuse?

And the bins?? Completely U.