Going round in circles with Southern Water

[dnb]

I have an existing water connection on my property that uses the correct sort of 25mm blue pipe. It's connected to a meter at the property boundary that SW installed a year ago to replace a broken meter in the property I have demolished. (We lifted the old wooden shack off the water stop tap, so didn't need to move it!) I have since put in a post to make the tap more visible.

 

Now I need to put in a water pipe to feed the new house. My plan is to reuse the existing water supply pipe and extend it by a couple of meters to the new location. This gets around a lot of planning grief because it means I don't have to work in a tree protection zone. Southern water of course don't want to believe I have a water supply already and are saying I need to apply for a new connection with an SN45 form. This seems to be a route to me paying them £90 to calculate that I need to pay them a lot of money for very little. They aren't very helpful at present. Have I found the right process to follow?

 

All I think I want at this stage is an inspection of the trench and with ducting, pipe & insulation going under the new foundations. But later on of course it will need connecting to the existing supply. The temptation to ignore them is high (based on my work aproach of asking for forgiveness instead of permission), but this is going to be a terrible plan in the long run because they don't seem to be a forgiving organisation. ?

[PeterW]

4 minutes ago, dnb said:

have an existing water connection on my property that uses the correct sort of 25mm blue pipe. It's connected to a meter at the property boundary that SW installed a year ago to replace a broken meter in the property I have demolished

So ... Southern Waters responsibility ends at the meter point ..! There should be a stop valve next to the meter to isolate the supply and then it’s a case of find the pipe and expose it, cut it with decent shears and then connect your new pipe to it. Make sure it’s 750mm down and follows the correct route into the house and all is fine. 
 

 

[Conor]

Everything beyond the boundary box is yours. Unless you want them to move the boundary box, then I wouldn't speak to them. 

[ProDave]

Well if they don't believe you have a water supply, your bills will be cheap.

[dnb]

34 minutes ago, Conor said:

Unless you want them to move the boundary box

 

Absolutely not.

 

4 minutes ago, ProDave said:

if they don't believe you have a water supply...

 

Unfortunately the billing department are much more pragmatic. ?

 

34 minutes ago, PeterW said:

Make sure it’s 750mm down and follows the correct route into the house and all is fine. 

And nobody has to inspect this? Or do I simply photograph it in case it is needed in evidence later like I did with the site electricity supply?

 

Thanks everyone. Looks like this could be another build hub cost saving ?

Edited February 17, 2020 by dnb

[PeterW]

10 minutes ago, dnb said:

And nobody has to inspect this? Or do I simply photograph it in case it is needed in evidence later like I did with the site electricity supply?

Yep as long as it’s installed correctly you’re good to go - photos are always worth keeping. 

[MrMagic]

@dnb Southern Water certainly seem to be sending out mixed messages with thier online guidance - https://www.southernwater.co.uk/help-advice/leaks/trench-regulations

 

I'd go with the advice here, backed up by the diagram on the SW website - everything past the meter and certainly past your boundary line is your responsibility so JFDI.

 

EDIT: reading that page again in detail, I think the clue is 'reconnected to the main', i.e. the wholesale replacement of the pipe end-to-end inclusive of the meter. In your case the connection to the main and the meter is all good so it's just 'your' bit you're moving.

Edited February 17, 2020 by MrMagic

[Gone West]

@dnb Our supplier is also Southern Water and as we were building a replacement house we already had water on site. We had a meter installed before we started work and after that we had no more contact with SW. We did take pictures of all the trench work just in case, but we've not been bothered by SW.