Surely anyone renting a property would expect the gas/electricity and water to work and be fit for purpose?

Apart from the spring being involved this is a fairly common issue where you have several properties being supplied from one stop tap. Usually whoever is on the end houses shits out whilst the ones with the leak on refuse to pay as they are getting water.

Your landlord must provide the services which are reasonably required by you. These services include the supply of gas, electricity and water.

Common problems with renting

Your issue is with your landlord. It's his responsibility to provide the water otherwise your cottage isn't fit for habitation. What agreement he has with the other landlords isn't your problem - unless he hasn't got a formal agreement with them for the supply and distribution of water in which case he may be obliged to evict you.

Merry Xmas.

Originally Posted by SmItHAnDy

Well,
They WILL come out to investigate, they will confirm that you have a leak on your property and that as you are wasting their precious commodity you now have 3 weeks to get it sorted, OR they will sort it out and send you the bill.

Who are they? This is a private water supply, no they involved.

To the OP, any chance of drilling your own well? Had it done in my garden cost about £500 all up including pump.

As it hasn't got really cold yet it might be an option?

Whether an outside authority will get involved will depend on whether the system is licensable for abstraction purposes. Under normal circumstances the non-licensed limit is 400 gallons/day. While pure domestic use for five small properties is probably going to be less than this amount, if the water is available for external use, e.g. through a hose pipe, it could vastly exceed that limit - a hose pipe typically runs at about 4 gallons per minute.

If the system is leaking, that 4 gallons per minute could be happening all day, which will be of concern to the Environment Agency. From the description of the attitude to getting the leaks resolved, it could be that the abstraction is neither metered nor licensed. Can of worms, anyone?

But that's not EX_STAB's problem as it's not his property. Nor can he install a well, for the same reason.

Originally Posted by SmItHAnDy

Well,
They WILL come out to investigate, they will confirm that you have a leak on your property and that as you are wasting their precious commodity you now have 3 weeks to get it sorted, OR they will sort it out and send you the bill.

Is there a fucking echo in here? Piss off, you cunt.

Originally Posted by Steven

To the OP, any chance of drilling your own well? Had it done in my garden cost about £500 all up including pump.

£500 for a borehole? How deep was that, how was it drilled (percussion or rotary type?) and who drilled it? Is the water drinkable?
I've never heard of a borehole that didn't cost less than £3,000 or so.

Ex-Stab; why did it start leaking? Metal pipes? Lead or steel? Have all the sections been leak tested, or is the leak confined to one stretch?

If all the pipes are similarly leaking, I can't see any fiix other than a trench, MDPE blue pipe and loads of money, proportional to the distances involved. I think the short term answer is a bowser or trailer. It's going to take some time to do the work and lots of time for all the landowners to bicker and squabble about who pays what. You can get pipes lined but I don't know the costs compared to replacement and doubt it would be cheaper in this case.

Originally Posted by Onetap

£500 for a borehole? How deep was that, how was it drilled (percussion or rotary type?) and who drilled it? Is the water drinkable?
I've never heard of a borehole that didn't cost less than £3,000 or so.

7 metres of 1_1/4" pipe, tried the 100mm first off but couldn't get deep enough, used something that looked like a small pneumatic drill to ram the pipes down.


Water level sits at 4m so I can use a gravity pump (got one from Gardena).

Don't know if it is drinkable as I haven't had it tested yet, use it for flushing the downstairs bog and watering the garden.

As for the cost don't forget I am in Germany and the guy more than likely did it on the "black" - was a company found on one of those handyman auction sites.

Originally Posted by putteesinmyhands

Can of worms, anyone?

I have no experience of bore holes and the EA side of things but from what you have written it does seem to be a can of worms.

I have just re-read E_S original post and noticed something I missed which is quite important - you say you have had no regular water so I presume you have intermittent supply? How irregular is the supply and does it affect all supply to the property (Upstairs/Downstairs/Shower/etc)? Is it 100% confirmed there are leaks along the supply? Is there a pump installed or is the gravity fed pressure enough?

You may have some pretty minor leaks but that could be enough to cause an issue with pressure to your property but this is all dependant on the lay out TBH. The minimum a water company can supply to your door is 1 bar as this is what is generally required to operate boilers.