A little irritated with neighbours. Haven't even moved in yet

[dilapidated]

We got the keys to our house in Jan.
We are doing it up as quickly as we can as baby arriving imminently and we are currently staying with parents.
House not habitable at all due to asbestos, condemned electrics and gas and burst pipes.

We have been sent a quote through from one of the neighbours saying we need to pay a 1/4 towards the replacement water main feed to our row of 4 houses that share the water main.

We have already dealt with insurers regarding leaks and water issues and our house is now dry.

They are still running off old pipes that run underground and are leaky.

We said that we wanted to meet with them to discuss the work with the company that will be carrying it out which we arranged for Monday.

We have been away since Thursday in another country for a wedding and yesterday morning received messages saying that they needed our go ahead on this urgently as the company came round and said so.

They are not giving us the chance to meet the company carrying out the work or further discussion. They realise that the work is not going to benefit us at all but say as it's a shared water main we are liable to pay towards it none the less.

We have explained that we have major issues we are trying to sort on the house and ran out of money and have already had to borrow to finish the last bit.

Would this irritate you or is it just my pregnancy hormones giving me a short fuse?

Just wanted to pipe up and say that this should be the water company's liability. We live in an old house and recently had issues with shared drains. United Utilities sorted the issue within 48 hours. Don't pay anything until you have confirmed that yours isn't liable in this case.

OP, here is the information from Ofwat that show responsibility for pipes etc.

www.ofwat.gov.uk/households/supply-and-standards/supply-pipes/

There are loads of dodgy companies trying to get people to pay for pipe replacement that is the water board's responsibility. It happened to my neighbour, they paid out to replace lead pipework and then the water board came along to do it for free a couple of months later.

I would check this out further.

From the looks of Ofwat this is a genuine responsibility of yours. They probably aren't trying to hoodwink you - it probably IS urgent! I'd pay it ASAP.