Shared water supply?

[cloudchaos]

We have just found out through enquiries that the property we are hoping to purchase has a shared water supply with another property. The vendors say that the water company have said they will separate this out but no information given as to when it will happen or who is paying for this. They say at the moment they are paying for the other property's water bill! Is there anything we can do about this? They are awful at replying to the enquiries and hardly giving any information so I don't expect them to be forthcoming with much more. Do you think the water company could help if I contacted them?

If it was easy to sort, they'd have sorted it, wouldn't they?

Would you have viewed, had you known?

Yeah I’d not be happy about that.

I’d put a clause in that they have to sort it before completion. Or you can pull out and they owe you the deposit. And that completion needs to be within two weeks of exchange, if they don’t do it, then you know it’s not going to get sorted.

We enquired about getting our shared supply with next door separated with our water company earlier this year. It would have been costly! The water company will only do the work outside the property boundary, you’d need to lay new pipes within the property boundary, and get it signed off by the water company. It’s very do-able, but would cost (and I’d double check with the water company that they have agreed to do it). So we haven’t, but to be honest it’s not causing us any problems, our pressure is fine and we’re certainly not paying for their water!

Are you on a water meter ? Or is it still on the old rates ?