fitted an outside tap..

Dec 21, 2006 11 Replies

I got a kit from Screwfix and fitted it, highly recommended for under a tenner ! Anyway, am I supposed to tell the water company and would they charge me for it ? or what other rules/ regs have I broken :)



I fitted a new tv aerial as well, bracket and pole from screwfix too.. what a marvelous company to deal with !



Simon



Not unless you're planning to fill a swimming pool from it - or install an automatic watering system for your garden - in which case they would probably insist that you have a water meter fitted.

None. Mercifully there isn't a plumbing equivalent of Part P.

They have their moments - but on the whole they're not too bad.

Doesn't that depend on whether he got the one with or without the integral check valve (assuming he hasn't got a separate one fitted)?

There are still some regs to be complied with, but the Screwfix kit to which he refers *does* have a built-in check valve.

My reference to Part P was really referring to work being notifiable - and having to be inspected/signed off. *That* doesn't apply to this sort of DIY job!

IIRC under the Water Byelaws of yesteryear - probably still around in some form or other - work of this sort was notifiable. But I don't expect anyone ever did ask first.

You need to comply with water bylaws .... and if this is a proper external tap kit it should ... i.e. anti-syphon check valve, internal isolation valve etc.

You don't need to tell them, just comply.

The people you 'should' tell are your local valuation people as there is a higher rateable value on your house if it has an outside tap.

Glad you were lucky with Screwfix - they used to be very good, but service seems to have dropped inversely proportional to catalogue thickness.

Yet. Except for drains.

They sent me a and Xmas card - wow! Frankly a modest voucher would have been more appropriate.

Except that, with Council Tax, there's no such thing as rateable value any more, apart from the historic value still used for non-metered water rates - but that never gets updated, and doesn't exist at all for newer properties.

Notifiable to whom? I can't see BCOs being interested!

Northumbrian Water, who have no shortage of water, insist on a water meter if you have *any* sort of garden sprinkler, according to their website. I have a water meter anyway. Loads of my neighbours have sprinklers but no meter :-|

ISTR that at one time the water rate depended on the number of WCs in the premises, but I'm not sure about sinks, outside taps or whatever.

The OP should visit his water company's website, which I'm sure will tell all...

The Water Regulations were repealed and replaced by the Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations 1999. Section 5 sets out the works that must be notified to the water undertaker, before starting, but houses are specifically excluded from the need to notify the extension or alteration of a water system. One or two specific items are notifiable, such as an automatic watering system, but not an outside tap.

Colin Bignell

When I lived at my previous house, I told Northumbrian Water I had fitted an outside tap and the chap on the other end of the phone said, I quote: "good for you but we didn't need to know that "

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