Water Connection

Gemma_22

Hi

We are in the process of buying a house that currently is only connected to water through the neighbors mains connection (the houses used to be owned by the same family)

We have been told we will need get a new water connection which is proving very costly. We are roughly 27 - 30 metres from the mains so it's quite expensive.

Is it not possible to keep the current connection but have a separate meter? Or does it have to be a new connection altogether? The house has been lived in and has had water in the past it is currently just switched off to the house we are looking at.

Any info would be appreciated thanks

sydthebeat

how much are you being quoted?

can you reduce that amount from the purchase, as technically the house is not in proper sale condition

con747

Any services on someone else's property is a very bad risk if for any reason your neighbour or future neighbours decide to cause problems with it. I know from experience as I was in a similar position and the neighbour decided to turn off the water. Your solicitor should be advising you on this.

Gemma_22

We are looking around the €17k mark that is going by the costings on their website.

We did get €12k off the asking price but the house needs a lot of work (rewire/new heating system/ESB connection/insulation and basically gutted from head to toe)

They mentioned the water issue but were slightly sketchy on the details they seemed to be making out it was just a case of finding the water connection as it was a "Mystery" ..then that turned into you will need a new water connection as its currently hooked up to next door. So we had to basically investigate the situation ourselves and found that the nearest mains are around that distance from the house.

We know its going to probably end up with us having to try and find the money but I was trying to find a cheaper alternative.

Gemma_22

con747 wrote: »

Any services on someone else's property is a very bad risk if for any reason your neighbour or future neighbours decide to cause problems with it. I know from experience as I was in a similar position and the neighbour decided to turn off the water. Your solicitor should be advising you on this.

Yes I have been speaking to the solicitor about it and he has basically sent us off to try and find out how much it is going to cost us before moving forward. I think I was just being hopeful that there was a better option that around €17k haha

sydthebeat

Gemma_22 wrote: »

We are looking around the €17k mark that is going by the costings on their website.

We did get €12k off the asking price but the house needs a lot of work (rewire/new heating system/ESB connection/insulation and basically gutted from head to toe)

They mentioned the water issue but were slightly sketchy on the details they seemed to be making out it was just a case of finding the water connection as it was a "Mystery" ..then that turned into you will need a new water connection as its currently hooked up to next door. So we had to basically investigate the situation ourselves and found that the nearest mains are around that distance from the house.

We know its going to probably end up with us having to try and find the money but I was trying to find a cheaper alternative.

you could be looking at 5k - 7k for your own private well supply

con747

Gemma_22 wrote: »

Yes I have been speaking to the solicitor about it and he has basically sent us off to try and find out how much it is going to cost us before moving forward. I think I was just being hopeful that there was a better option that around €17k haha

Is it a water scheme you are connecting to? 30 metres with a mini digger and buying the pipework and getting it connected would not cost €17k if doing it yourself or getting someone to do it.

con747

sydthebeat wrote: »

you could be looking at 5k - 7k for your own private well supply

I know there is a grant for well water system upgrades you can avail of every 7 years so maybe a new well could qualify.

Wildly Boaring

I'm afraid you already know the correct answer.

Too risky to have a connection through a neighbour.

You know there IW price.

There is a reason these half built houses look cheap.

Wildly Boaring

con747 wrote: »

I know there is a grant for well water system upgrades you can avail of every 7 years so maybe a new well could qualify.

Doubtful it there's a potable supply within 30m

sydthebeat

Wildly Boaring wrote: »

Doubtful it there's a potable supply within 30m

why?

Gemma_22

This is a town centre house am I wrong that a well wouldnt really be suitable to this location?

We are just very unfortunate as you would think in a large town centre that the mains would be running along the street, but no, not for us it runs in the 2 roads at either side of the property haha one is about 100m away and the other is 30m away.

This house was built in around the 1970s and its in a row of 3 houses on the street all owned by the same people so they seem to have just connected 1 house to the mains and ran it through to the other houses in the row.

To be honest I dont fully understand it - i just know IW are a fortune haha

sydthebeat

Gemma_22 wrote: »

This is a town centre house am I wrong that a well wouldnt really be suitable to this location?

We are just very unfortunate as you would think in a large town centre that the mains would be running along the street, but no, not for us it runs in the 2 roads at either side of the property haha one is about 100m away and the other is 30m away.

This house was built in around the 1970s and its in a row of 3 houses on the street all owned by the same people so they seem to have just connected 1 house to the mains and ran it through to the other houses in the row.

To be honest I dont fully understand it - i just know IW are a fortune haha

the house isnt of saleable quality, and if they took shortcuts like this, what else did they take shortcuts with??

so personally id walk

Gemma_22

sydthebeat wrote: »

the house isnt of saleable quality, and if they took shortcuts like this, what else did they take shortcuts with??

so personally id walk

Well to be honest the only reason we went for it is my partners grandfather actually built the house and was a legit contractor plus we have got approved for the funds for renovation in the mortgage. We did factor in the water but not to this extent I feel it was made out to be a lesser issue than it was until we went and investigated.

con747

Irish water are only responsible for the connection up to the boundary of the house so I see no reason why you cannot do the groundwork inside the boundary and just get them to connect it. It would not cost very much doing it yourself.

Gemma_22

con747 wrote: »

Irish water are only responsible for the connection up to the boundary of the house so I see no reason why you cannot do the groundwork inside the boundary and just get them to connect it. It would not cost very much doing it yourself.

Yes we actually measured it from our gate along the road and over to the mains, we didn't include our yard measurements in that quote. The issue is the fact the road our house is on does not have the mains on it, its on a nearby road.

sydthebeat

con747 wrote: »

Irish water are only responsible for the connection up to the boundary of the house so I see no reason why you cannot do the groundwork inside the boundary and just get them to connect it. It would not cost very much doing it yourself.

by my reading the nearest available connection point is 30m outside of the house boundary.

listermint

con747 wrote: »

Irish water are only responsible for the connection up to the boundary of the house so I see no reason why you cannot do the groundwork inside the boundary and just get them to connect it. It would not cost very much doing it yourself.

I think the key here is the boundary distance to the supply. AND whats between that. i.e topology (land ownership/physical impedments) thats where the cost is.

con747

Gemma_22 wrote: »

Yes we actually measured it from our gate along the road and over to the mains, we didn't include our yard measurements in that quote. The issue is the fact the road our house is on does not have the mains on it, its on a nearby road.

If your neighbour is connected then surely there is a connection outside their boundary you can get Irish water to connect you to?

Gemma_22

sydthebeat wrote: »

by my reading the nearest available connection point is 30m outside of the house boundary.

Yes that is correct we only counted what was outside our boundary

Gemma_22

con747 wrote: »

If your neighbour is connected then surely there is a connection outside their boundary you can get Irish water to connect you to?

The neighbors house is the corner plot and the side of their house has access to the road that has the water mains, if that makes sense. So we would have to go along the front of their house and up around the corner to get to the mains they are connected. its hard to describe

con747

Gemma_22 wrote: »

The neighbors house is the corner plot and the side of their house has access to the road that has the water mains, if that makes sense. So we would have to go along the front of their house and up around the corner to get to the mains they are connected. its hard to describe

Ok, so I take it your the middle house then? Where is the neighbour on your other side getting their water from?

Gemma_22

con747 wrote: »

Ok, so I take it your the middle house then? Where is the neighbour on your other side getting their water from?

See this is what I dont understand there are at least 10 houses on our side of the street and the other side across the road... surely all of these houses havnt had to go 30 metres down the road to connect to a mains? Maybe I'm wrong but if there are pipes bringing water from the mains to their houses along the road surely we can just hook up to these pipes ?? And pay the ones that put it in or whatever.

As i said i dont fully understand how it works I just think in such a built up area in the town centre there would be easier access to water than this

con747

Gemma_22 wrote: »

See this is what I dont understand there are at least 10 houses on our side of the street and the other side across the road... surely all of these houses havnt had to go 30 metres down the road to connect to a mains? Maybe I'm wrong but if there are pipes bringing water from the mains to their houses along the road surely we can just hook up to these pipes ?? And pay the ones that put it in or whatever.

As i said i dont fully understand how it works I just think in such a built up area in the town centre there would be easier access to water than this

That's why I asked, if Irish water don't know where the connections are maybe ask some of the neighbours or get your solicitor to find out. I would think that would be part of his job but others on here might know for sure.

Wildly Boaring

con747 wrote: »

That's why I asked, if Irish water don't know where the connections are maybe ask some of the neighbours or get your solicitor to find out. I would think that would be part of his job but others on here might know for sure.

It is not part of a solicitors job to find out where water mains are.

OP.
Irish water only brought in these high rates in last few years.
Highly likely the council did it for the neighbours at far lower cost.

If you know it's 30m from your boundary to the watermain, well that's how far it is

Gemma_22

Turns out the house had its own mains connection all along. We found it. The guys selling the house were wrong they just didn't know where it was so assumed it wasn't there.

Good job we didnt just go and get a new connection without investigating.