Water pipe on shared drive - advice needed please!

[HyggeHeart]

Hi, we are a few houses down a shared drive that runs around a green on a slight upward slope. A few nights ago the houses down from us started flooding. When our water was turned off the flooding stopped indicating a leak from our pipe. The water company have been out and dug up the pavement at the end of the shared drive and can't find the leak. They have said that the leak in our pipe is therefore under the shared drive. As the houses are fairly new - less than 8 years old - they've said the only way this is possible is if the contractors linking our house to the mains didn't have a pipe long enough and have therefore linked two pipes and buried a fixing with no view hole somewhere along the drive. The water company have left us with a hose from the hole in the pavement, along 50m of shared drive to our back tap so we have water but have otherwise just left us to it. We are at a loss as to what to do now.

Do we go back to the house builders (we've tried once but could try again) house is just over 7 years old and the contractors have obviously been remiss in burying a fixing?

Do we go back to the water company, the guy that came out couldn't understand why they'd finished the mains at the end of the drive, if they'd come come down the grass the distance to just cross the drive to connect our house would have been 5metres not 50?

Do we pay to try and find the fixing and get a viewpoint over it and get it fixed?

Do we just pay to get a new pipe installed down 50 metres of shared drive?

Any vague ball park costs of people having to do similar would help, we are pretty worried!

Anyone had to cope with similar or have any useful advice we'd be very grateful.

Thank you!

I am assuming this is a private drive and the utilities in it are the responsibility of the home owners. What does it say in your deeds? If it’s a private drive, and it’s your pipe, I think you may have no option but to get it fixed. Look at your house insurance. What about NHBC? Generally they are useless but worth a look. You might find it’s difficult to prove it’s the builder’s fault.

The first thing to do is establish ownership of the pipe though. Usually once a pipe enters your property it’s yours. That’s the drive I would suggest but if the “drive” is an adopted road, then it’s the water company’s responsibility. So check the legal status of the drive. Are the house owners responsible for its upkeep, or the council?

It’s a very difficult situation. Do all house owners have maintenance responsibilities for the drive? If so, what does this actually mean? Joint liability for repairs? Or individuals are responsible if a connection to their house goes wrong? Can you establish this? Speak to your Conveyancing solicitor?

I hope some of that might help and sorry it’s a bit rambling.

Can you do a diagram? For houses to be flooding that's a lot of water escaping. Was your supply interrupted? If there was a leak big enough to flood properties there would likely be a drop in pressure to you. Presumably you need to talk to insurance anyway if the suggestion is your pipe damaged another property? They may help sort out responsibilities. It sounds a bit complicated for a forum response!

I work for a water company in their exact department.

Firstly, I would go back to who built the houses and see if theyge got any plans for the services that they could show you. They SHOULD as it was only 8 years ago.

I'm not sure where you are but I'm SW and our water company doesn't allow shared supplies anymore and havent for quite some time. Older properties are often kn shared supplies but now with any new builds they all have to have separate supplies coming to the main in the road.

Check your deeds too, and you can also email your water company asking for animal of the services in your area. We use a mapping system and when new supplies are connected it shows whether they are in a joint supply or singular.

If no joy with that then your next best bet is to go ahead and get a plumber to come and quote you for a new supply. You will have to pay for the installation if the new supply from your house to the edge of your boundary and then you will have to pay your water company to connect you to the main in the road as well. 50m is a long way, but if you get a map of the services I your area there may be shorter way to connect to the main.

Obviously check your water companies legislation regarding new builds and when that came into play so you can say to the
house builders that the pipe should have been separated supplies not a shared

Check the deeds and see who owns the driveway. You might be able to claim on your house insurance.

.

Hi Thank you everybody,
The supply isn't shared we each have a pipe that comes from the mains down the shared drive, it's just ours that has the problem as when it's turned off the flooding stops. The other houses flooded as they are slightly downhill from us and the water was forced down the outside of their pipes.