water meter, private vs public?

[menthe]

The meter man came this morning to read our meter which is situated in the pavement outside our house.  Used to be in our grounds but, since they upgraded the road and put in new services, all meters are now on the "public" side of our property.

The man said the meter was not visible for reading as it is covered with debris, grit, mud, etc.  He said I'd have to clean it as otherwise he couldn't read it.

Let me explain:  the meter is at least a meter below road level and has a lid which needs to be prised open.  I explained that my husband was now 92 and, even if he managed to lift the lid and got down on his belly red-indian style (comme un cormanche), he'd not be able to get up again.  As for me, being "trop petite", my arm could not reach the meter.

The man said it was "my" meter and I had to keep it clean.  MY meter?  I argued that it surely belonged to the water company and it was moreover OUTSIDE of our plot and on a public road.  Eventually, he said that I should ring the company.

As I live in a small commune and it is customary to go to the mairie with all manner of problems, I went there to ask about my rights and whose responsibility the meter was.  Unfortunately, the maire was not there, only the apparently hundred-year old adjoint who is smiling benevolence and little else.  To cut a long story short, he asked the cantonnier to come and clean out the debris.

When I tried to ask whether I should contact the water bods and make a complaint and to establish my positon on all this, both he and the secretary were noncomittal and said that nowadays there is "no service" from the utilities companies.

Now I think, it's OK this time, but what if I have the same problem again?  And what about all the other elderly people in the commune who might have the same problem.  What are householders' rights in this?

Does anyone have any knowledge or can find something written down somewhere that sets out areas of rights and responsibilites with water meters?  If there is something official in writing, I will go down to the offices of Sogedo and make a vigorous and possibly exaggerated indignant complaint.

Ideas?  Suggestions?  Thanks.

[menthe]

No reply yet.....and that surprises me hugely.  Normally someone would know and, better still, someone would give me a link to some official governmental information.

I was rather hoping that I'd get an answer so that I could go down to Sogedo with it.

Oh well, too late today and no doubt tomorrow it will be early closing. 

Can someone please rack their brains?  Mine seems to have gone AWOL!

[DaveLister]

When they moved the meter into the road did they liaise with you? Have you any paperwork from that time?  My understanding is that the company is responsible for everything up to the meter, the customer for everything after it. By moving the meter into the road they have effectively given you more to be responsible for. I think you may find the answer to your question in the paperwork that accompanied the 'upgrade'. Have you talked to your neighbours?  Perhaps they can shed some light.

[Lehaut]

Follow on from DaveLister.  In our last village  the water board tried the same tactic, ie move the meter from inside our house to outside.  I categorically refused to allow them to do this (might have helped as I was on the council).  They had no idea where the pipe ran from the house to the proposed new site outside the courtyard.  We had just had it re-tarmacked at our cost and invited them to re do it if they wished to replace the pipe.  As said, from the meter to your house is now your responsibility.  Probably too late for you to do anything about it, but worth knowing for other people.

Incidentally, the pipe did eventually break just before the meter inside the ground floor and flooded it!

One possible solutions.  Our classic meter was changed some years ago to a readable at a distance one.  Even though the meter was inside the house, the meter maid could read it from outside in the courtyard with a hand held device.  Given the obvious difficulties you have in accessing the new installation, you could ask that they install this type of meter to make everyone's life easier.  To this end, you may  need to contact a more powerful organisation than the mayor!

https://www.pour-les-personnes-agees.gouv.fr/preserver-son-autonomie-s-informer-et-anticiper/amenager-son-logement-et-sequiper/amenager-son-logement

might be a start.  Only a suggestion as I have never used them.

[menthe]

Thank you for your answers, DL and Lehaut;  helpful as always🙂

We didn't have much choice.  There was a massive upgrade to our once rural little lane.  The whole road was dug up (indeed dug up multiple times by all the different services;  yes, I know, I don't BELIEVE it!)  We had new water and electricity supplies, internet fibre, all the lamp posts are now state of the art with LED lamps, a high bank opposite was completely dug up with a low wall installed and the whole bank was re-planted and landscaped with roses, herbs and lavander and an automatic watering system was put in place.  Even our name was upgraded from an "allée" to a "rue" and we had a new number and someone from the mairie came to put up the plaque for us.

Even if we had wanted to, we could not have refused the changes. OH even remarked that we should be renamed a "boulevard" as they have planted some small trees on our side of the road.

Not only that, we had "trottoirs" (won't call them pavements because they are not paved but covered with chippings) and we had a good-looking wooden barrier installed on our side of the road as our house is half-way up a hill.

Lehaut, that is a superb link to all those services that I didn't know about.  Fortunately, OH is not yet in need of all those things.  He still takes a daily walk round the village, can drive perfectly safely and goes to his table tennis club once a week.  The time indeed will come when we will need some of that available help.

For gardening, we use the chèque emploie scheme to have our hedges cut but I might ask for help with mowing the grass in a year or two.  Lehaut I did think of your previous suggestion to move to a bigger town when I brought up the subject.  But, TBH, our present place suits us very well and I can't in the end bear the thought of all the hassle that moving would involve.  Most importantly, I didn't find a suitable house to buy in my preferred location.

Thanks again, both of you, for your kindness and patience and I always feel I can depend on you for sensible and relevant answers.

Finally, I WILL be asking about the remotely read meter though OH, having looked at the debris and mud covering our meter thinks that it might just be a one off problem and that it was originally caused by all the road improvements and might not happen again. 

[menthe]

Sequel to my tale of woe to yesterday but don't worry, it's a happy ending.

The maire and cantonnier came together.  The debris has been cleared away.  The maire said the meter has been installed too deeply in the ground and that should there be a leak, it would be difficult to repair wihtout us being deprived of water for hours.

So he is going to contact Sogedo to come and get the installation done properly.  Unfortunately, I didn't hear the door bell but he has left a message with my neighbour.

Lehaut, I shall still be talking to the water people or the maire about a meter able to be read remotely.

[Lehaut]

menthe, thanks for the update.  Good to read there may be light at the end of the tunnel.

[anotherbanana]

Illuminated water meter in a tunnel, well, that’s a new one!😵‍💫