Detecting a water leak on a shared supply - HELP

[britishboy7]

As above, all of our taps and shower the water only trickles out. Kitchen sink tap and outside cold tap are both just a trickle too. Had a look on Afinity Water website and it says you should be able to fill a bucket in 30 seconds, it takers about 5 minutes at present

Had the water board out earlier, and he said all 4 houses (1930's built, 2 lots of semi detatched, we live in the one furthest from the stop cock) are fed on a shared supply from his stopcock on the footpath. Basically told us its for us to work out where the leak is. 3 houses are privately owned, 1 is still council (elderly lady in her 80's).

Any advice please guys? Was recommended a leak detection company who use hydrogen/tracer gas to detect the leak, but waiting for a call back as he needed to check with his engineer if it would work on a shared supply.

Anything else i can do? At present, we cant even shower as theres nothing coming out of it

 

[terryplumb]

Ask the other neighbours if they are having the same issue. If they are not ,the problem is your service pipe.

 

[britishboy7]

Sorry Terry, i should of said, yes all 4 houses (mine plus the 3 neighbours) are all experiencing low water pressure. The Afinity Water guy measured our outside tap and got 1.5 bar pressure, and only 4L per minute flow. As the main stopcock, where his responsibility ends), he measured over 4 bar. Her didnt measure any of the other houses pressure. So all houses supplied by the shared supply are having same issues.

 

[terryplumb]

Not much you can do yourself ,other than engage the services of leak detection specialists. As one property is owned by the council ,have they been consulted ? Council may have its own workforce / equipment .

 

[britishboy7]

Council tennant doesnt seem to give a t0ss to be honest, so long as she can fill a kettle (shes a hoarder and doesnt care). Just had council plumber round (I called the council earlier to ask about drawings of the pipe routes but got nowhere, but they sent out their plumber just to take a look). He listened to our kitchen tap, with it off to see if he could hear water running/escaping. He couldnt.

He did say he heard water 3 houses away at the council house when he listened to their kitchen tap, which he said indicates the leak is nearer to them than us?

 

[terryplumb]

It doesn't really matter which property it's near to ,if it's on a shared pipe it's shared responsibility of the owners. If it is on a branch pipe to a single property ,that's down to the owner of that particular property .

 

[PeteE]

Wouldn't each property have a stop cock where their feed pipe branches off? If so, start by turning them off one at a time and see if the flow improved to yours at any point...

Regardless of whether the tenant is interested or not, I would have thought the Council would have been obliged to provided an adequate water supply to their property so I am surprised they have not done more....

 

[britishboy7]

no, only 1 stopcock on the public footpath that the water board measured at 4 bar pressure. From there, it branches off to 4 pipes, 1 into each property. Ive got a stopcock under the sink, but neighbour hasnt. I read elsewhere that the water board may be responsible for all pipes up to the water meter on each property, does anyone know of that? On another forum someone thinks the law was changed recently?

We dont have a meter though, when we moved in 5 years ago they came to fit one but couldn't as there was no real space for it under our sink, so we are still on water rates.

 

[PeteE]

I am not a plumber, but every property I have lived in has had two stopcocks associated with it, one internal and one external near the edge of the property.
This included an1850's terraced cottage with a shared feed like yours.

It sounds like you are going to need to get that leak specialist in, but it might be a nightmare getting the other owners to pay for their share..Even when the leak is found, I think that same battle will continue with regards the repair.

In my case in the terraced property, the Deeds stipulated the individual house owners responsibilities towards joint services ect, plus I think there are various laws concerning this as well, but obviously this would entail solicitors fees/legal costs unless you have done form of legal insurance???

 

[britishboy7]

Hi PeteE

I looked on the Affinity water website and a share supply is responsibility of all 4 properties as we all use it. Not sure how it would work if the leak was caused by one particular household damaging the pipe for example. But at present, we are all at a bl00dy stalemate. Council tennent is happy as she can still fill a kettle (I give up....................), one neighbour seems to think their individual stockcock was concreted over so they don't have one (which means leak detection guy with the hydrogen/tracer gas cant even come out as each house needs to be isolated individually to do the test)

so its a sink full of luke warm water and baby wipes for me

Any one with any suggestions please add them, I'll love you forever

 

[HERTS P&D]

Can you ask for a separate supply?

Andy

 

[HERTS P&D]

Also try writing to your local MP and local newspaper. Even the council, the council environmental health department.

Andy

 

[britishboy7]

Can you ask for a separate supply?

Andy

Thanks Andy, yes thats our plan as soon as this damn leak is sorted. Been a ball ache already and its only been 4 or 5 days. We've got a block paved driveway so guessing we'd need a new supply pipe moling under the driveway and the water board to make the connection?

 

[britishboy7]

Also try writing to your local MP and local newspaper. Even the council, the council environmental health department.

Andy

Will do, going to be on the council and water boards case first thing in the morning, our neighbour (one of the privately owned places) is disabled so everything's a struggle for her. Will keep up the pressure on both the council/water board until they come out and help in some way