Is It Illegal To Touch The Water Valve On The Street?

[birchy]

Long story short.. Enmax turned off the water to our house today IN ERROR. Property Management company figured it out (we're renters), called the city and it's all straightened out. They understand that it was a screw up.. and "are aware of the urgency of this", but have no ETA. "Hopefully soon" is what they keep saying.

Now we're just sitting here waiting for the "after-hours crew" to show up and turn it back on.

I see the damn valve on the street.. is it illegal for me just to turn it on myself?

[SJW]

Yes.

[AE92_TreunoSC]

I think its ok to touch it, but tamper is another matter.

Out of spite, I think you should go "touch" it.

[ercchry]

huuuuge fine, do not do it

[BlackArcher101]

Don't they require a special tool to actually open the valve?

[birchy]

Frustrating!!!

Just got a call that they should be here within 90 minutes.. so that's not too bad. But it's been off since noon-ish.


Something tells me if there was some crazy leak threatening to flood the nearby houses and a fella ran out there to shut it off that they wouldn't say anything about that!

[DonJuan]

I'll touch yours if you touch mine!

[birchy]

Originally posted by BlackArcher101
Don't they require a special tool to actually open the valve?

I did some googling before I went out and looked.. it does look like most places require a special key. But when I went out, it's just a normal end, like the end of a bolt.

[delled]

You probably have water by now but for future that is just a plug. The valve is about 1.5 meters below that cap.

[birchy]

Originally posted by delled
You probably have water by now but for future that is just a plug. The valve is about 1.5 meters below that cap.

Yeah.. just got turned on at about 9:20pm. Frickers.

Good to know about the plug. Thanks.

[Realistic]

fuck it, turn it on.

[r0g3r]

bitch at enmax and get compensation :thumbsup:

I'm sure they can throw some credits.

Shutting off water is a bitch move

[birchy]

So here is how the screw up was explained to us..

We're renters in a basement suite.. house is managed by a property management company, and the OWNER of the place pays the water bill (and some others).

Apparently the previous tenant upstairs did not know this, and was paying the water themselves. New upstairs tenant moves in, pays the first bill or two and then calls the management company and says "why am I paying water?" , they say "you shouldn't be, the owner pays it". So he stops paying. So yesterday they cut it off for 'non-payment'. BUT, the owner had been paying the bill the whole time!

So from the outside looking in, it looks to me like they were getting paid TWICE the whole time. Something tells me they're going to be issuing somebody a nice big refund!

[DeeK]

It's not a normal bolt. it's five sided. It'd be pretty awesome if you had a 5 sided socket.

[szw]

What do these look like and where on the street are they?

[BlackArcher101]

http://wp.medina-gazette.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/Water1.jpg Sometimes on the street, sometimes further in on the property. It's those little round caps you see, which opens to allow access to the valve within the tube. (I think)

[redx2nv]

a simple 24" pipe wrench will work on anything!

they use a triangulated three sided tool, to open or close it..