Hi,I'm looking for a little information or advice in

Hi,

I'm looking for a little information or advice in relation to Gaia, the Italian utility company who supply our water.

We have a house in the hills above Lucca.  We left the house to return to the UK in October 2019.  We returned in August 2020 to find that our water supply had been disconnected by Gaia, as a result of non payment of their bills.  Immediately upon returning in August we paid the outstanding bills and the water was reconnected the next day.  The water meter is in our cantina, it was there when we bought the house.The cantina door was left unlocked and the Gaia plumber must have been able to open the door and simply disconnect the water supply.  When we were reconnected after paying the bill, I noticed that there was a leak from the bottom of the pipe as it emerges from the main water supply pipe in our cantina floor.  The water loss was considerable and I arranged for Gaia to return - they fitted a new pipe, but 24 hours later I noticed that it was leaking again.  Gaia have been out again and have told me:

1.  That I need to pay for a 20 metre trench to be dug from the main water supply across a communal courtyard to the wall of our house to remove the old Gaia pipe and replace it with a new one.  Gaia will remove there old pipe and replace it with a new one.  The trench will be approx 0.5 meters in depth.

2.  They want to move the water meter from the cantina to the front of the house, and they advise me that I will have to pay for that as well.

I have a couple of questions:

1. Am I required to pay for the digging up of the old pipe and in doing so, the creation of the new trench to accommodate the new gaia water supply pipe?

2.  Am I required to pay for the work to relocate the meter from the cantina to the front of the house?

3.  Can Gaia insist upon the water meter relocation taking place?

4.  When we left the house in October 2019, there were no problems with the pipe which was subsequently leaking when we had the water supply reconnected in August.  I suspect that when the water was disconnected ( some time between October 2019 and July 2020) that the pipe may have been damaged by Gaia when they disconnected us, otherwise why would a previously solid and reliable water pipe suddenly spring a leak, if it perhaps was damaged during the disconnection process?