New water supply when splitting property into 2 flats ?

[mikeyw]

I own a property that i'm in the process of converting into 2 flats. There is a water supply into the building that i'd hoped to split into 2 to feed each flat. Yorkshire water told me i had to install a separate new feed and have quoted me a staggering £2500 to lay a small length of pipe to connect me to the water main in the street about 1.5m from the boundary from of my property

The question is legally am i forced to do this or are YW just wanting to cash in on naive property developers ?

The current supply has no water meter so i was hoping i could just get both flat tenants to split the cost of the single supply.

tia,
Mike.

 

[Johnmelad]

I have absolutely no idea what the legality of this is, but would suggest you add a small amount to the rent to cover water and pay this bill yourself.

 

[muggles]

Have a water meter installed (they'll do this for free, because they want you to have one) then split the supply on your property and install a meter on each supply yourself. You will need to be billed for water usage yourself, then bill your tenants accordingly. Every month/quarter/whatever, take readings of both meters and use them to divide the water bill between the two flats according to usage. So, for example, if after the first quarter Flat 1 has used 250 units of water and Flat 2 has used 500 units of water, you know that you need to bill Flat 1 for one third of your total water bill and Flat 2 for two thirds of the bill.

 

[mikeyw]

Thanks guys - this sounds very encouraging.

What would happen if say in 10 years time i came to sell the property without the direct water supply ?

 

[muggles]

If you came to sell one flat without the other you'd be in the cacky, if you were selling both together I suspect the new owner would be happy with my suggested triple meter arrangement

 

[mikeyw]

Thanks - do i have to get Yorkshire Water to install the meters ? or can a plumber do this for me ?

 

[muggles]

Yorkshire will need to install the primary meter in the road, any plumber can install secondary meters EDIT: ...provided they are Water Industry Approved

Happy now Tony?

 

[Agile]

Technically any plumber working on mains supply pipework should be water regs registered or have the work inspected by the water supplier!