The city is redoing the water supply throughout the city. And they asked a contractor working on the house "y'all need water?" and were told "no, we are not ready for that. We're good.". When the contactors arrived the next day, the kitchen was flooded. Water is literally dripping from everything.
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Dam. What a mess. So who pays for this? I'm sorry you had to go through this. I have to ask, if by any chance did you get that in writing?
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You HAVE to sue.
Take as many pictures and videos as you can. Keep all related documentation. Emails, texts, everything and lawyer the fuck up.
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Exactly - why the city was in control of the water and not the owner with the main valve? Also, very selfish of OP to expect the whole block to go without water supply just because they had some work to be done on the property because they didn't have the main shutoff operational (I assume, since otherwise it would've been closed).
You’re probably right, but they should sue every possible party involved. If it is determined the city is not at fault, the buck is passed to the contractor.
No. The water was off because of extreme pipe damage and the contractors were there to work on windows.
You don’t do DIY stuff do you? The owner, or owner’s representative (in this case the contractor), are in control of the water supply to your dwelling when working in plumbing. It’s for this reason that every place has a main shutoff valve. I’m guessing that OP used what we call a “neighborhood contractor” and probably not licensed and insured.
Sueing is the only way you will get any money. And they will throw a hearty defense at you because they don't want to set the precedence of the city being liable. So it is worth it for them to spend more in legal fees that what you ask for.
Why didn't you turn off the main water valve at the beginning to be sure ?
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Ah ok. I get it now.
If you turned the main valve off you wouldn't have had this issue.
There is not one.
There is always a main valve for every house.
Not for one that has not got new piping for 80 years and was done wrong.
You're wildly ignorant about this situation. Every house has a main valve. If you're replacing plumbing up to your main valve, the mess wouldn't be in your house. If you're replacing plumbing after your main valve, it would have stopped the flow of water before it got to your inside plumbing. Either way you would be fine.
If you're replacing the valve, the correct way to fix the issue is to block the flow of water before the valve. There's no circumstance that this fucks up your house outside of people literally having no idea what they're doing.
THERE IS NO MAIN VALVE. We have looked and looked. It does not exist. There are not even valves for the rooms. The house was built in the 1850s and renovated unprofessionally in the 40s to 60s. We are trying to fix what was done.
At the very least take a video walkthrough of your home showing everything, even if it's just for your own future reference. If you will be able to claim insurance or damages or anything like that you need to be able to state exactly what you've had otherwise you'll get less money
(For example if you just say table they can give you the cost of the cheapest ikea table, as opposed to specifically the one you had or a similar one)
Sue the contractors. This isn't even city responsibility.
How did the water even reach the kitchen? This control is supposed to be done yourself.
It's like saying "I was taking a shower and the city turned on the water before I could apply soap"
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Does this involve a new connection? Only then you have some ground to expect them to not turn the water on.
Even then your plumbing should have been shut off.
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How did they turn off your valve? There can be two controls, one for the city and one for you. And your valve is usually on your property like the main breaker.
Because if you turn the city's valve off for maintenance you are in the wrong.
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I still don't understand the situation. Did they enter your property and turn the water on? Because that's the only scenario where the city might be liable but it's also probably vandalism and trespassing.
If you turned off the water, how did it flood?
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ABSOLUTELY sue
I had no water for 3 days in my new apartment because they kept turning on the wrong meter, this is way worse though!
I had no internet for like 3 weeks in my new apartment because they kept lighting up the wrong fiber, even yours is worse though.
I was so determined to get away from my in-laws that I took a 33% loan paid my friend to load a trailer and left 2 days later. We crash landed at the new lease so abruptly that it took 3 days to get gas and internet turned on. I just wasted another $400 on the cheapest casino hotel room across the river for infinite hot water and peace of mind knowing we were finally at a new fresh start.
Damn, that bad huh?
Something similar happened to me right when Covid lockdown started. I couldn’t buy water bottles because of that. And the water company didn’t want to send anyone out because of Covid. Kept insisting it was my landlords problem.
Nope. The water company shut off my water instead of my neighbors.
Sorry, what?
This doesn’t make any sense. Your contractors are trying to shift blame - this isn’t on the city, the contractors didn’t shut the main valve.
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The water was off. The city turned it on.
The water could have been off, but the contractor still should have turned off the main valve. The contractor is at fault.
We turned it off. The contractor did not know where the valve was.
So the city turned on the main valve? What about the valve to the kitchen?
There was no reason to isolate the kitchen. The water was off do to pipe damage throughout the house.
Dude, EVERY valve leading to that pipe should be shut off for this exact reason. That is the standard operating procedure for any contractor. If they didn’t know where the valves were, they need to ask.
The contractors were working on windows. They have nothing to do with plumbing.
Then the blame falls to you as the homeowner, not the city. The main valve IN the house should have been shut off.
Should have installed a lock and tagged the valve shut. Every city service main I have seen has a way to lock it to keep delinquent customers from turning water on. A lock and tag with contractor and owner phone numbers would have prevented an apathetic city worker who was not told or did not listen to instructions about keeping this service valve off.
We had noticed that. You are right we should have locked it. But it was marked.
There is no reason for the city-controlled street valve to be what you rely on unless your main shutoff failed, and even then, only for as long as it takes to replace the shutoff under your control.
We have no main shut off valve. The city knows this. We have relied on the street one for more than a year.
You know- the contractors are going to be successful in taking you for a ride- unless you’re just a troll playing dumb to be irritating.
Or… were you the “contractor” lol?
As many have told you multiple times- there’s a way to shut the water off to the house. It is not the city’s responsibility to withhold water for you to work on your house but yours or the people you’ve hired to shut off the main valve.
They, (or you/a family member because you’re being oddly defensive of the “contractors” when this is 100% their fault), obviously didn’t do that. This damage is on whomever was working on the house.
Not the city.
I saw your other comments. No-the city did not go into your house/property and turn back on the main valve lol. Someone working on the property did if it even was ever off to begin with.
There is no house valve. The contractors were there to fix windows. The water has been turned off at the street for more than a year because of extreme pipe damage.
Then your first priority should have been to add a main shutoff in the house.
We are not allowed to because Texas historical structure laws are weird.
Huh? What Texas law are you claiming would prevent adding a water shutoff valve?
Cities have historical structures that they send people to confirm changes or renovations. If it is not enabled, We can't do it. We are no allowed to do that for some reason.
Historic typically only has a say over exteriors. I've never heard of a place where any sort of historic protections would block that sort of plumbing upgrade.
I thought i was gonna crazy reading some of these replies. If you dont want water in your house, you should turn off your water. People do it all the time when leave for vaca and dont want pipes to burst. No way some random city person will know this particular house doesnt want water out of hundreds of houses.
Ummm... Not gonna lie, it sounds like your contractors are taking you for a ride here. Why on earth would they not turn off the mains valve before starting work?
Regardless of the work the city was doing, turning the mains off to your house is step #1. The city has nothing to do with this...
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My god man - they didn’t know where the valve was?
Have you considered that you may have switched off the wrong valve, and your negligent contractors didn’t turn the water main off as there was no way to test whether or not the water was on or off?
If your house isn’t ready for utilities, that is on the owner, it doesn’t have anything to do with the City. It’s so clear that you or more likely your contractor messed this up and is trying to cover their ass.
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OK so - you’re going to be replacing windows, exposing the inside of a home to potentially freezing temperatures, risking the plumbing of the home.
Should you:
A) Turn off the water to be safe. B) Throw caution to the wind and hope the city’s maintenance window magically aligns with yours.
It’s on the homeowner to turn off the main! And if your main pipe is somehow damaged, seal it off somehow! Get a set of vice grips and pinch it closed, stick your finger in it! It’s on you to maintain your own house - not some random city utilities worker.
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Clearly it wasn’t! Like you are standing in a puddle!
I think they turned it off outside and not the valve inside the home. And the city then came and turned it back on
Even if that is the case, the problem area should have been isolated. Most houses I’ve been in have valves after the feeder and water heaters for this reason. Like why trust a random valve that is not directly managed by you, and also lives outside 24/7?
I can’t help but chuckle at this person standing in their waterlogged kitchen thinking “how could the City have done this to me?”
Oh for sure. There are measures to take. We have a valve outside, before the water heater from the main, and after. When we worked on our pipes we shut it all off and drained out the excess.
But to me it seems this guy was only working on windows. Wonder where the water leak came from. It must have been freezing when the water was shut back on.
But yeah I also got a good chuckle out of it. There were definitely other preventative measures that could’ve been taken
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And the valve within your house should have been turned off.
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Generally I’d agree with you, but I do have a personal story of something similar. In our old place, the upstairs bathroom faucet did not have its own shutoffs. We were replacing the fixtures and shut off water at the meter. The same day, we got a new washing machine. Because the water was already off (bad idea, foreshadowing) we didn’t turn off the disconnects for the washer. We go to the hardware store and come back home, change out the fixture, and turn the water meter disconnects back on to see if the new faucet leaked. Good news, it didn’t. Bad news, the washer line was then spraying uncontrolled all over our laundry room like a cartoon 😬. We had just totally forgot about the washer line at the time. So I understand not shutting off all disconnects if it’s already shut off upstream. Then again, I’m not a professional nor being paid to do work on someone else’s home, and the contractor should have known better. They took a gamble and lost.
This is not on the city, this is on you and your contractors. They are supposed to use the main shutoff in your house… And if they are doing work before the meter and the main shut off. They are supposed to shut it off by the road and LOCK IT OUT….
They didn’t shut it off in the house or at the road and were relying on the city water being off, that’s just pure stupidity. Hopefully your contractors make it right, if not sue the contractor.
This is the contractor.
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If your main valve was off, it's impossible that this happened.
OP said the house doesn't have a main shutoff valve because it was built before that was required, and the renovations since then before OP got the house were done very badly and not up to code.
They stated in comments they’ve now deleted that they have one. They keep changing their story to defend the “contractor” that is more than likely family.
They’re also claiming it’s a historic house so they can’t add one, which is a blatant lie. You can’t really believe anything OP is saying.
If it was historic, they wouldn’t be able to be making the changes to the windows they claim the contractor was there for without jumping through all the same hoops they supposedly can’t do for their plumbing. But they would be able to change the plumbing, electrical, etc. without any special permission just a licensed contractor.
The more OP comments, the less their story adds up. Hence them deleting a majority of their conflicting statements…
This is more than likely an attempt at karma farming…
Plus if you read my comment you would know what the contractor or home owner should have done themselves if there really wasn’t a shut off on their side… They shut off the other side and lock it out. This is the fault of the contractor or homeowner and NO ONE else (if it’s actually true that is).
Ok, I might just misunderstand you here, but... Are you complaining that there was a water outage in your area due to some scheduled maintenance, you decided to do some work to the water pipes in your house, without closing the main valve, and it's the city's fault that you got flooded after they switched the water back on faster than they initially planned? If so, do you really think they should have keep the whole neighborhood inconvenienced for longer on the off chance someone decided to do something this dumb?
Looks like it's obviously your contractors' fault, as they were too lazy to close the valve, which is the most basic thing whenever you decide to do stuff like this.
Yeah, I think this entirely hinges around whether the main valve was on or off. If it was on, OP's contractors suck; if it was off, it's the fault of the person who turned it on.
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So, they walked into your home to open your main valve? Or did the contractors just not care to even turn it off?
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Ok, but unless the broken pipe was juuust before your main valve, how could it possible been the city's fault that you got flooded, and not the lazy contractor's?
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Ok, then it's really fucking weird.
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I did. And I'm not seeing anything saying that the contractors in the house were employed by the city (why the hell would they be?), so I assumed there was a coincidence with some other work the OP wanted done to their house. I guess that was wrong? So, still, the contractor's fault for being idiots.
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It's still coming back to the stupid contractors working inside the house, whoever they were employed by.
When you do plumbing work, you're supposed to turn off the main supply going into the house to prevent something like this from happening. This is your contractor's responsibility, not the city.
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The city will supply water to the meter. They don't turn the main supply on for your house. It's not their responsibility if they turn on service and you have a broken pipe.
Go ahead. Sue them. Waste your money and lose. You probably won't even be able to find a lawyer who will take the case.
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They didn't. Your contractors are lying to you.
OP’s comments on this are infuriating.
Extremely.
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Cause you keep spamming the same response and ignoring that everyone keeps questioning if the city went INSIDE your house to turn on the main water valve or if all they did was turn back on the main supply to the house and the contractors let it flood.
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So if they turned on the main valve, what was the status of the water valve on YOUR side of the water main? Did they also turn on YOUR side or just the water main? There is 2 shut offs in this equation, not one. If they only turned on the main and the home was never shut off, they are almost guaranteed to have no liability.
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Well if they turned on your valve as well as the main one, you probably get some recouping after suing them.
Some valves are outside the house. That said, your point is still valid.
Because everyone is telling you what happened and youre just saying “no”
Water utility worker here. If the city had shut off the curb stop(valve before the meter) , only the city is supposed to reopen it. When the valve is opened, the employee is supposed to watch until the meter stops moving. If the meter doesn't stop they try to check with owner, if no one home then look for a house shut-off and leave a doorhanger with note. They should not leave if the meter shows continuous flow and no one is home.
OP's story is so full of holes, about as many as the plumbing in their house apparently.
They also didn't think there'd be a single person who would know they were full of crap.
How does your house not have a separate water valve ?
I hope you sue them anyways
Why didn't the contractor shut off the water at the water supply line beforehand? That would seem like a prudent move in any case.
I’m a contractor and that doesn’t make any sense lol. We do massive renovations without the city shutting off water. There should be a main valve to the house and then separate valves to the rooms under construction. This is on your contractor, not the city. Even if it hypothetically was on the city, restoring water should’ve been documented with more than an alleged phone call saying “nah we’re good”. lol wtf is this
OKAY update. I was wrong about something. There is no house valve. A 60's renovation was done wrong. And some people are confused about stuff. The contractors were not plumbers and had nothing to do with the water being turned on, they were there to fix windows. We turned off the water more than a year ago because of extreme pipe damage throughout the house.
This still makes no sense.
How? What more do you need?
Had this happen at a hotel I used to work at.
The hotel didn't depressurize the water suppression system (or something like that) and every single water sprinkler and water line burst at the same time. It was a 9 story hotel with a restaurant/bar and conference center at the top.
The restaurant and conference center collapsed onto the 8th floor, and there was water running out of every part of the building. Millions of dollars in damages, and the hotel still sits condemned (this was several years ago)
Sorry OP, but it also sounds like "contractor forgot to shut off the water valve to your house..."
If you think about it, even if you did have water, and had to have a contractor do plumbing, they would have to turn the valve off first, no?
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I see, I hope this situation gets resolved for you soon!
At least now you should be able to do some remodeling, that’s just embarrassing but thanks for sharing.
There are 1000 reasons why this post is BS.
If the water was off, this wouldn't have happened. Contractors working on windows would not turn the water off, nor would they have anything to do with turning the water off. There's no need to turn water off when working on windows. The city wouldn't ask about turning water on, that's not how it works.
Either you're lying for internet points, ignorant, or have the dumbest contractors on the face of the planet. Maybe all of those things.
Let me ask this, you contacted the city to turn the water off at your property. During this time, the city was redoing the water supply in the city. When they came to your property, they asked the contractor if you needed your water supply turned back on and the contractor said no. They turned it on anyways. Is this right?
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Why didn’t you turn off the main valve to your home? Just curious
Lots of people in this thread giving advice without knowing how this process works.
Sorry
Its entirely YOUR FAULT: you left your main valve open (the city has nothing to do with that) even though your water piping wasnt in a condition to be operational.
I cant even imagine what might have happened... Did you leave the taps open while your house was being reconnected to the city water system? Or was your house's water system incomplete?
Please update us on the situation, I feel for you. It makes you want to cry out of frustration.
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What?
r/lostredditors
Dam would have helped damn
That rug really ties the room together
IKR?
The city can ABSOLUTELY be held LIABLE for all the damages that happened next
Not they cannot. This is solely the fault of the contractor.
How?
The main water valve for the house should have been turned off by the contractors
It was.
Not if it all came out like that
The water was off. The city turned it on.
I think you’re confusing the main water supply line at the street (city would control) and the main water supply line at your house (you control). If the line in your house was truly turned off this couldn’t possibly have happened. Did you formally request the city turn your line off or what is just a coincidence that they were doing work as well? Were their formal requests or just a conversation between a random worker and your contractor when he said they would turn it on?
Just a conversation. And both the House valve and the main valve are by the street. The city knows the house is having renovations and officially, even the main water line is supposed to be off.
I mean sounds like the city would have had to go out of their way to turn water on to your house AND turn your house valve on unless someone is lying. I’m not sure how you prove that but I’m sorry about your flooding either way.
No. The city's job is not to turn on water when you need it. It's your own responsibility.
But the city did. After being told not to, the city turned the water on.
Yeah it's not their job to listen to you saying don't turn it on.
With the exception of the first connection, you are supposed to handle the connection after the city connects to you.
It's like saying I was replacing a light fixture and the city turned on the electricity. Even if there was no power when you started, it's your responsibility to turn off the main breaker. It's not the city's responsibility to tend to your needs.
How are you still not getting this?
We turned the water off. It has been off for 1.5 years because of extreme pipe damage throughout the house.