Landlord switching our water off

[mayalld]

Mmm not sure about doing that though,if the tanks overflow should block for any reason it could flood or even sink the boat.I like to be in attendance when filling my tank.

 

It overflows onto the well deck, and drains through very adequate scuppers.

[bizzard]

It overflows onto the well deck, and drains through very adequate scuppers.

Sorry i still wouldn't do it i've known boats to have leaking overflow pipes where they're fitted to the tank.It also depends if its a separate or integral tank,quite risky.There must be someone around who could do it for her.Used a bit frugally a tank full should easily last a week.

[Graham Davis]

Since the landlord is as he is, has anyone checked the rate at which he is metering the electricity, as the price for that is fixed by legislation.

[mayalld]

Since the landlord is as he is, has anyone checked the rate at which he is metering the electricity, as the price for that is fixed by legislation.

 

He is charging 13.28p per unit.

[Davidss]

But surely you would be carrying it to the elsan emptying place anyway.I would,'t have thought a couple of pints of water from your boats tank would make much difference.

I think you miss the point. That's not so difficult as it's never been made clear in this thread. I initially struggled to interpret the phrasing in a sensible manner

When the OP says 'the elsan stinks', and generally refers to 'the elsan', she appears NOT to mean the elsan installations on the boats.

Rather she means the communal elsan disposal point.

 

Once you apply that interpretation it enables more sense to be made of the postings.

'My' interpretation also means that it takes more than 'a couple of pints' to swill the place down.

I don't know if you use a cassette or pump-out toilet, but if you want to dilute splashes and spillages to the point where any residual smell is within acceptable limits I think it's normal to use more than 'a` couple of pints'.

Of course, the situation is made worse if you feel you are not able to replenish your boat supplies when you feel the need, which is the situation here.

 

HTH

[Bat & Frog]

Since the landlord is as he is, has anyone checked the rate at which he is metering the electricity, as the price for that is fixed by legislation.

Do you know what rate this is ?

[Dekazer]

He sounds like a very difficult person to communicate with - hope you all manage to find better places to live soon!

[bizzard]

I think you miss the point. That's not so difficult as it's never been made clear in this thread. I initially struggled to interpret the phrasing in a sensible manner

When the OP says 'the elsan stinks', and generally refers to 'the elsan', she appears NOT to mean the elsan installations on the boats.

Rather she means the communal elsan disposal point.

 

Once you apply that interpretation it enables more sense to be made of the postings.

'My' interpretation also means that it takes more than 'a couple of pints' to swill the place down.

I don't know if you use a cassette or pump-out toilet, but if you want to dilute splashes and spillages to the point where any residual smell is within acceptable limits I think it's normal to use more than 'a` couple of pints'.

Of course, the situation is made worse if you feel you are not able to replenish your boat supplies when you feel the need, which is the situation here.

 

HTH

Maybe the elsan disposal point does stink,they often do.Surely if i'd missed the point Kiki would has corrected me.

[Graham Davis]

Do you know what rate this is ?

 

He is charging 13.28p per unit.

 

As I understand it he cannot make a profit on his metered charge, which is why a lot of places also charge a service charge. For some reason I can't get on to Google at the moment (Stupid work system) but Dave's figure appears high. The local Elec Board will give you a rough idea of what it should be.

[kiki]

I think you miss the point. That's not so difficult as it's never been made clear in this thread. I initially struggled to interpret the phrasing in a sensible manner

When the OP says 'the elsan stinks', and generally refers to 'the elsan', she appears NOT to mean the elsan installations on the boats.

Rather she means the communal elsan disposal point.

 

Once you apply that interpretation it enables more sense to be made of the postings.

'My' interpretation also means that it takes more than 'a couple of pints' to swill the place down.

I don't know if you use a cassette or pump-out toilet, but if you want to dilute splashes and spillages to the point where any residual smell is within acceptable limits I think it's normal to use more than 'a` couple of pints'.

Of course, the situation is made worse if you feel you are not able to replenish your boat supplies when you feel the need, which is the situation here.

 

HTH

 

Got it in One !!! Thanks - sorry I did not use the right terminology in the first place, might have saved some confusion :-)

 

Maybe the elsan disposal point does stink,they often do.Surely if i'd missed the point Kiki would has corrected me.

 

Sorry I'm not too bright, its the elsan point - and I mean smells beyond endurance when our big tough neighbour nearly threw up thats how bad it was. It actually got pressure washed down in the end.

[mrsmelly]

Hi all, alhtough this is more a liveaboard question I wanted to put it where most of the sage advice comes from.

Our landlord for reasons best known to him decided to switch our water off from something like 7 at night to 6 in the morning. At the time of (minimal) consultation I pointed out to him that the big hole in his logic was that we need runnng water to rinse out casettes and the elsan (long drop thingy).

Anyhows...over thursday, friday and saturday we had no water and all put it down to the freeze. Some stalward liveaboards were out there throwing boiling water over taps etc but to no avial. Ho hum, lets just wait till it thaws. So sunday morning I come out and hooray....water is running so everyone is out there filling up the tanks. However within a couple of hourse the water goes off and we see our landlord driving off for Sunday lunch.

 

The Much Beloved went up to look and not only was the water switched off at the mains but a lock has been put on it as well. This in the middle of the day after a freeze leaving us all without water. I do not want to try and describe the smell from the elsan by this point other than to say stomaches were churning over and we had no way of washing it out as the canal was also frozen.

 

Luckily a handy toolbox served to unlock the lock and get the water back on without the landord knowing and we managed to jet wash the elsan and get everyone's tank filled up.

We are outraged that we pay our fees and yet are denied the water we pay for because the landlord is trying to economise.

 

Has anyone else had this happen? Is it even legal? who can I complain to? The moorings are owned by BW and leased by the landlord.

 

Thanks - from a now fragrant Kiki

 

BW have different grades of mooring. At Sawley they have residentioal, grade 1 2 and 3 types moorings also. It says on their website that water on grade 2 is turned off in bad weather but not on grade 1. I asked them about it and that is indeed the case so they tell me.

[Iain_S]

(snip)

He could have just been playing safe by turning off the water in case of burst pipes. Hard to say. I would give him the benefit of the doubt for now because of the extreme weather & minus temps we're having.

(snip)

His decision could just be weather related.

 

If the pipes aren't drained, does turnng the water off achieve anything, apart from limiting water loss if they do burst? Personally, I'd have thought an "off", undrained, system was more likely to freeze than one in regular use.

 

Iain

[mayalld]

BW have different grades of mooring. At Sawley they have residentioal, grade 1 2 and 3 types moorings also. It says on their website that water on grade 2 is turned off in bad weather but not on grade 1. I asked them about it and that is indeed the case so they tell me.

 

It isn't a BW managed mooring.

 

The site is owned by BW, and leased on a 21 year lease to our landlord.

[Martin Megson]

 

Whilst I think they are wrong to turn off the water, Braunston Marina does make it quite clear that this will happen.

 

It is your choice to winter there, knowing that getting water will be a pain, unlike Kiki who has had no prior warning.

 

I beg to differ. There is nothing in the Braunston advertising nor in the contract which states water will switched off through the winter. The only prior warning I got was a notice pinned on the gate a day or two before it was switched off.

[mrsmelly]

It isn't a BW managed mooring.

 

The site is owned by BW, and leased on a 21 year lease to our landlord.

 

Yes I understood that dave, I was just mentioning that even BW did the same sort of thing at some of their sites. Not a good idea though.

[mayalld]

Yes I understood that dave, I was just mentioning that even BW did the same sort of thing at some of their sites. Not a good idea though.

 

Ah, OK!

 

I think the issue here is that whilst BW certainly turn the water off a some leisure only moorings, they wouldn't dream of doing so at a residential site.

 

This is a site where over half the moorers are residential.

[blackrose]

Surely to no small degree this must depend on what is actually in your contract with your landlord ?

 

Does this mention the T+Cs under which you get your water supply ?

 

A couple of points:

 

Firstly, "tenants" have certain statutory rights (such as access to water), which cannot simply be signed away in any private contract.

 

Secondly, everyone is talking about "the landlord" and the occupiers of boats as "tenants", but does anyone concerned actually have their boat on a proper residential mooring? (Even if it's just one of you). If not, then I may be wrong but I'm not sure if the terms landlord and tenant apply and thus those statutory rights may not apply either. However, even if there are no residential moorings but people are living on their boats with the knowledge or tacit agreement of the moorings proprietor, then a strong case for application of those statutory rights could be made.

 

Edit: Sorry, I've just seen the post above!

Edited February 7, 2012 by blackrose

[kiki]

As you said Blackrose, as above, we are fully residential pay council taxes have bins removed (when the landlord pays the bills) etc. I know he has been complaining about the cost of water and got a massive electric bill so is proberbly trying to cut back on his spending, but us moorers are not the ones who are not paying the bills, it is him. He spends nothing on maintainance, yet includes it in the price of the moorings (roughly £50 a month) yet the only time the grass gets cut is when one of the moorers does it, the only time anything gets fixed is when the MB does it, the gates hang on a thread, cars were broken into a few weeks ago as all the theives had to do was walk around the gate where there is a gap about 12 inches wide, water is cut off without warning, the pumpout pipe was leaking for months and when a pumpout was being done it certainly "cleared the decks" yet never got mended, we feel so uncomfortable about them now that I won't even go to the office to collect my mail. its an appaling situation and yet we have little choice as its close to transport links to work. I think that is why he behaves the way he does - he knows we need the moorings. But we pay our rent and get treated like 2nd class citizens. I think this water situation was just the last straw. As Dave Mayall said earlier, we have actaully scored with the electric meters being put is as we use less than we were being charged for so sucks boo to them.

[jelunga]

Ah, OK!

 

I think the issue here is that whilst BW certainly turn the water off a some leisure only moorings, they wouldn't dream of doing so at a residential site.

 

This is a site where over half the moorers are residential.

True. Here at Sawley BWML turn off the water to the bollards on the grade 3 and 2 moorings during the depths of winter. They are pontoon moorings and it is difficult to ensure no freezing fir overground pipes. On residential and grade 1 moorings, we have water all year to our individual bollards. The pontoons with water turned off do have water at the land end though.

[Chris Pink]

And what does his landlord, BW, have to say about it?

[Laurie Booth]

And what does his landlord, BW, have to say about it?

Probably nothing to do with BW, I suspect the reply would be.

[Doorman]

Apologies if this has been broached previously, but by simply allowing the water to trickle through the pipes prevents it from freezing. Proof of this is the BW water point close to where we are currently moored. It has a faulty stop valve that allows water to pass and drain into the grid below. Even during the coldest of nights so far, minus 9 degrees centigrade, it has remained fluent.

 

Also, during what was claimed to be the coldest winter on record last year, Overwater Marina kept one of its water points operating, by simply cracking open the tap and letting the water trickle out.

 

I would have thought that this simple method should have been applied to the Elsan point at least.

 

Mike

[Rich]

Ah, OK!

 

I think the issue here is that whilst BW certainly turn the water off a some leisure only moorings, they wouldn't dream of doing so at a residential site.

 

You would think so but here at Apsley Marina (BWML) last Thursday the water was turned of in the afternoon because of freezing conditions forecast for that night. There was no warning and when I phoned up the management to complain it became quite indignant and informed me that the T&C's state that they will turn of without warning, not they can. I couldn't find in the T&Cs but...

 

Here at Apsley there are a row of residential boats on one side of the marina and it would have been no problem at all for the caretaker to have wandered along the row informing people. But apparently this cannot be done because they could not send me an email giving advanced warning because I might not have been there. This was his excuse/reason.

 

The water has also been switched back on without warning or advice, and then off again. The only way we found out was because the caretaker wandered paste and mentioned it.

 

I can well understand the need to cut off the supply. This is nothing new to us in marinas over winter in freezing conditions but there has always been advanced notice and I think that for what we are paying BWML, £6000, their customer service attitude stinks and I shall be very happy, come 1st April to quit.

 

Edited because I can't spell they're...er..thier, Oh rats

Edited February 7, 2012 by Rich

[Doorman]

I think that for what we are paying BWML, £6000, there customer service attitude stinks and I shall be very happy, come 1st April to quit.

 

£6,000?

 

Is your boat called The Cutty Sark and are you moored at Greenwich?

[kiki]

Apologies if this has been broached previously, but by simply allowing the water to trickle through the pipes prevents it from freezing. Proof of this is the BW water point close to where we are currently moored. It has a faulty stop valve that allows water to pass and drain into the grid below. Even during the coldest of nights so far, minus 9 degrees centigrade, it has remained fluent.

 

Also, during what was claimed to be the coldest winter on record last year, Overwater Marina kept one of its water points operating, by simply cracking open the tap and letting the water trickle out.

 

I would have thought that this simple method should have been applied to the Elsan point at least.

 

Mike

 

You would think wouldn't you - but this is what started the whole thing in the first place, there is one hose at the elsan point and this was left on a trickle to the fury of the powers that be who then switched off the water ( this was a while back as well) there is no way of winning this without actaully tackling them, but we need to know our rights first.