Two flats, one mains, builder turning off water

[Wonderbug81]

I live in a flat (converted Victorian house) and the downstair's neighbour has just building work.

Their builder turned off the mains water this morning so my water also went off. They didn't tell me in advance.

There are two two taps (stopcocks) in the flat hallway and the builder mumbled something about 'not being able to turn off the downstairs flat because it's too tight so he turned off the mains.' Have they just decided to turn off the mains because of that?

I do have a means of turning off the water under the sick in my flat as well so surely there is a way for them to to do it separately too?

The build is 6 months and I can't have this going on for that long!

Sorry for typos! That should say sink! Also I asked them to tell me in advance before they started...

This is not reasonable. If they genuinely can't turn off just their water, they must at least warn you, and keep the time it's turned off to a minimum. Go and talk to the builder.

That is sooo annoying. Can you go down and speak to him and ask him how long it will be off for. If the downstairs tap is too tight perhaps wd40 might do the trick. It might need a couple of squirts but is usually successful.

If the stopcock is too tight then chances are it would have broken off. This however is the perfect time for it to be replaced. Go see the neighbours or the builder.

Tell them not to turn it off and if they do, you’ll just turn it back on.
leave a note on the wall if you don’t want to speak to them directly.

Thanks for the tips.

His English isn't great so I'll speak to the neighbour (he isn't living in the property right now)!

We agreed they'd tell me 24 hours in advance but that's clearly not happening.

I live on my own and there's a few of them who'll be here for 6 months so I'm keen not to rock the boat until I really have to, rightly or wrongly.

Switching over a stopcock is a really easy job. I’d expect any builder to be able to do it. Costs about 15 quid for a new one so I’d be suggesting quite strongly that they fix the stopcock on your neighbours flat as you’re not putting up with six months of the water going off mid shower. Unless of course they just need it off for a few hours here and there but even then why not just replace the broken stopcock.

Once is not unreasonable. Now they know its an issue they should have the tight stopcock replaced in the 10 mins it would take to sort for future requirements.

If it happens again go nuclear on them. They know the issue

Thank you! Yes it would be easiest if they just replace. Will ask the neighbour.

There should be one internal and one external stop tap per flat.
Historically this isn't always the case and it's usually when the property is a converted house (you usually find that the contractor didn't put on a second gas and electricity supply for the upstairs flat, as well as cutting other corners).

Yeah I think there are separate internal ones but only one main external one unfortunately.