Water meter installation - what if it's not practical?

[EnglishRain]

Hi

Water company have sent a couple of letters about plans to install a water meter. I was wondering if anyone had any knowledge/experience to know where we stand.

The stop cock out on the road serves three properties, and a plumber friend has said it will not be possible to install a meter there based on that and some other reason too, I think it was a matter of space/ability to get to the right bit?

I gather this means that they will have to install one in my house. Problem is, the stop cock is in a really inconvenient place. Don't ask me why, as it was before we moved in, but it is behind a load of wood panelling in the bathroom. I have a little plastic box I can get my hand in to turn it off, but that's it. Plumber friend has said the only way to install a meter there would be to remove the panelling and that would mean disconnecting the free standing bath and pulling it out etc.

Does anyone know if the water company can insist on installing one in my bathroom, even if it means dismantling bits of it to do so? Or whether there are any other options here?

Before we had a water meter, the stopcock outside our house turned off water for us AND our neighbour. This was over 20 years ago and we asked for the meter. It was installed under the pavement just outside our front boundary and the neighbours didn’t have a meter.

We had them round to see about installing a meter, our house is 200 metres away from the road, showed them the stopcock at the house end and provided an approximate route for the incoming pipe. They faffed about for an hour or so trying to work out where we were teed off from the supply in the road, gave up and left. That was 6 months ago - heard nothing since

We had them ask us a couple of years ago, arranged an appointment for someone to have a look who declared us unmeterable. I can't remember the exact reason but we got a discount on our bill!

My mum has a shared stop cock with her neighbour. She tried to explain this to the water board but they sent someone anyway. They took Nobel ok at it and said "nah, we can't do that" and left. She's not heard from them since and that was several years ago.

Do you have to have one?

They can't force you to have one, can they?

If they can't fit one they might move your billing to an Assessed measured charge.

Thanks all. I think they can force us to have one as we live in a water stressed area.

The water firm had a contractor come out to do some work on the stopcock by the road recently, and they ended up spray painting lots of our gravel (which had only been delivered a week prior!) and leaving rubble behind on our driveway. When I contacted the water company they said the contractor denied it. I don't know who else would spray paint bits of my drive red though, or leave bits of dug up path behind. As a result I'm a bit worried about someone coming and pulling my bathroom apart if they are not of my choosing. I would rather my plumber friend do it if it must happen but I don't really want to remodel the bathroom even temporarily...

Water companies use blue paint, electricity companies use red paint.

@MrsMoastyToasty it was definitely a contractor ordered by the water company. That's why they spoke to the contractor, but they then said it wasn't them.

Guess it varies by water board, but when they tried to fit one to our house and couldn’t for similar reasons, ie could have but only by ripping stuff apart, they tried to put it in at the road juncture where supply splits to house but couldn’t because of something restricting it in the pipe work there, and then they gave up