Valve in street inaccessible - water company obliged to fix?

[DannyNotAPlumber]

Hi! Our main stopcock is weeping. I phoned the water company, first-person thought it was their problem as it was on the 'outside' of the water meter. Then another person called me to schedule a visit and they told me that its not their problem as both the water meter and the leaky stopcock are inside the house.

Its just a big old valve and I'd be happy to swap it out, if I could turn off the water in the street. There is an isolation valve in the road at the end of my drive. But the lid is jammed and the guy from the water company who came to visit us to test the flow when we moved in (apparently 1.1bar and 7 liters a minute is just fine, I disagree, but what can I do?), he tried to isolate the water but couldn't get into the thing as the cover is jammed. Its pretty obviously the result of tree roots under the drive from the massive tree that the previous owners allowed to overgrow (they owned a nissan micra) to the point of it entering the drive and part of the road. I enquired with a tree surgeon and the first thing he said was that the local tree warden is a madman. I guessed he was bound to say that, so made inquiries, and yes apparently we are not allowed to do anything with that tree despite its trunk taking up 1 foot of a 9 foot wide road (devon...)

So anyway, I can't do anything about the tree. The water company guy said he'd 'put a note on the file' which I presume isn't really a thing as I just called them and there are no 'notes'. They say that isolation valves in the street are not a 'required' thing so there is no need for them to do anything.

So that means I need to swap the valve, without turning off the water. I presume this is something plumbers must have a solution for if its really true that isolating the water further up isn't 'required'. What do you do? Freeze the pipe or something? It seems to be some variety of plastic, couldn't that damage it?

And before you say it - yes, of course I will be paying a pro! I'll start calling round in the morning. I'm not going to try changing a valve on a live water pipe!! Its only that I thought someone here might know if its really true that isolation valves in the street can fall into disrepair and the water company just hold their hands up and say "not my problem mate".

 

[ShaunCorbs]

Call them up and say you don’t know where there stop tap is and you want a function check once they’ve found it as it’s required as the internal one is leaking and needs to be replaced that your sorting but the plumber needs to be able to turn the water off etc

 

[DannyNotAPlumber]

When I called them, I literally said, "how will a plumber change the valve then, if you aren't going to fix the access to the isolation valve?" and they said, "A professional will be fine with it sir, they can cap it off if the they need to."

It was a long call. Included me making them wait while I looked up whether the fact that the isolation valve exists means that they have to keep it in good repair. My three minute google conluded that it did, they disagreed. They being south west water (in UK)

 

[ShaunCorbs]

Would try again but play dumb

 

[DannyNotAPlumber]

Would try again but play dumb

🙂 That is exactly what I'll do tomorrow - I'll call some plumbers and if they tell me it would have been £150 to change the tap without isolating the house but will be £500 given that the water needs to be stopped using some form of magic, I'll definitely call back the waterboard and play dumb.

 

[exedon2]

I think this is becoming the policy of most water suppliers.
We work in several water suppliers areas until recently they would all rapidly attend any of there stop taps that were either non working or inaccessible.
Now 2 of suppliers Yorkshire water and Anglia water have made it very clear they will only attend in 'dire emergencies'
Ie property at risk of been flooded.
The attitude is use freezing equipment
Great if there's a leak on service before internal stop tap!
Or internal leak and internal stop tap seized.

 

[jerrysimpson]

They don't think they are obligated

 

[DannyNotAPlumber]

I think this is becoming the policy of most water suppliers.
We work in several water suppliers areas until recently they would all rapidly attend any of there stop taps that were either non working or inaccessible.
Now 2 of suppliers Yorkshire water and Anglia water have made it very clear they will only attend in 'dire emergencies'
Ie property at risk of been flooded.
The attitude is use freezing equipment
Great if there's a leak on service before internal stop tap!
Or internal leak and internal stop tap seized.

They don't think they are obligated

I figured I should let you guys know in case it helps anyone with this same thing. I called a few plumbers and it turns out that is no magic way to fix a live water pipe, especially if its pvc and they warned me that it would be very messy without shutting off the water. So I called back the water company (not the people they pass you off to), eventually got through to someone slightly higher up and explained that given that they do have a valve and that their own person couldn't get into it, and that plumbers have told me that they'll charge a lot and that I will have a very messy kitchen with at least 10s of full water pressure blasted into it, and that my main consumer unit is about 3 feet away, that they really might want to at least send someone before a disaster happens and I get very public about it. Same afternoon a guy comes and replaces the cover of the valve. Took me an hour to then replace my stopcock, a plumber would have done it in 3mins I'm sure. Anyway, problem fixed and new stop valve in place.