Main water valve replacement

I need to have the main water valve inside my home replaced along with a water pressure gauge that is attached to it. In order for this to happen the water needs to be shut off from outside of the home first. I have contacted my HOA and they are clueless on this process. My local county public works has come out through a shut off request that I initiated as directed by my HOA. The public works stated they can only shut the water off to the entire community, nothing accessible outside of the individual homes or even per street. The public works was unable to shut the water off due to lack of sufficient notice provided by my HOA for all of my neighbors. At this point I know that the only solution is to have the whole communities water turned off for this work but the HOA is not willing to approve this. Fortunately, this is preventative maintenance I am trying to do before my main valve fails altogether but I can only imagine how destroyed my home would be if that main valve were to burst and nobody knows how to or is able to turn off the water from the outside. What actions can I take to resolve my issue? Ideally I would like to have additional water shut off valves added throughout the community if not outside of each house individually at least at the end of each court.

The water bill is included as part of the monthly HOA fees which is a flat rate. I do not have a water meter on my property or anywhere in the community that I am aware of or was able to locate with my plumber or the person from my HOA that I have been in contact with. The main valve isn't leaking but doesn't completely work as I'm still able to get a little water out of my faucets when I turn it off.

Everything you mentioned is exactly in line with what my plumber said. He stated he would still be able to replace the PRV with a little water coming through but I'd prefer to have all the work done at once in that location. I've been in touch again with my HOA and plan to bring up the lack of an external shut-off valves at the next board meeting but am not confident of any action being taken on their part but we shall see. At least the leaks in my house are fixed and I'm a lot more educated on the issue. I still find it comical that the public works folks said they turned the water off to the community and 4 hours later my water was still running at full pressure and I could confirm my neighbors still had water too by testing their outside spigots. Fingers crossed nobodies main shut-off valve or line in front of that valve has any issues in their home until we get to the bottom of this.

Request a meeting with the Board.

Explain that this work is needed to correct a potential situation with the regulator valve in your home and the work should take no longer then 2 hours (likely less then one). Explain that since the valve feeds the entire community, the Association is responsible for notice (offer to pay for the notice). Then see what happens.

If needed, an only if turned down - as it sets a tone, explain that since the work can not proceed without Association approval, if the valve fails the Association could be liable for any damage caused due to their refusal to allow the work to be completed.

I would also contact your Public Works department again and explain the difficulty you're running into with your HOA; perhaps your city government can put some pressure on them. The HOA is going to have to accept that the water will need to be shut off for a bit to have the work done, otherwise, in addition to not being able to replace the valve, you may not be able to do future plumbing work (replacing a water heater, etc). Moreover, you're not going to be the last homeowner there that needs to deal with this -- I've had to have mine replaced too; they don't last forever -- so they need to come up with a system to manage the process.

Your situation is very unusual. Most commonly, the utility ends at the meter, and everything downstream is the property of the the owner(s).

Who owns your "lot"?

That would be an easy way to do it

If you had one meter for all, how did you shut off to one individual?

You don't

That's actually not what she said

"Your HOA isn't one that has one water meter? It should be mentioned in your CC&R's if it is. That means that the HOA controls the water supply to your home. We had that situation where we had 1 meter for all. However, if you did not pay your bill we had the ability to shut your water off till you paid your dues owed."

Which could mean that the development has one meter, but every house has a vault and valve.

The HOA had the one meter. Each house had a shut off valve. So if an owner did not pay their dues, the shut off to their home was turned off and locked. The water still flowed to the other homes.

When I moved in, this had been changed. They had already paid to have separate meters to each house. There was a special assessment of $300 for everyone to have their own meter. The water company then came in and put meters on each home. We also had to turn over our streets to be public for maintenance purposes for the water utility.

Now one of my first tasks was to gather signatures to change our documentation to reflect this change. We had to change it to reflect the HOA no longer paid for water nor do they turn off water access if not paid. The dues did get reduced about 25% when that change was made.

So yes the HOA had a meter and then shut off valves for each home with the ability to lock. The homes did not have an actual meter.

How would you turn off the water to one delinquent homeowner as was stated.

I know the different ways to bill for utilities, as I also own a water/utility billing company.

Richard, I don't get why you can't understand this.

Think Richard just wants to argue with everything I state. So doesn't matter. The fact is that there was shut off valves for everyone's home. The board voted to turn off water to those who did not pay. One member would go to the shut off valve in front of the home with a pipe wrench and a lock. There was NO meter! Just a shut off.

When we switched to individual meters, that is when everyone got an actual water meter. It was part of the expense.

The shut off was located in front yard about a foot from the road. They would wait till someone went to work. Plus our HOA is set up that the land around your home is Common Area owned by the HOA. You only owned the house and the lot it sat on. So there was no trespassing situation in our set up. Plus that shutoff valve was owned by the HOA.

I moved in shortly after they changed this situation. So I did not do it. However, my other board members had.

Amen brother