Advice needed on Tanking & Utility companies

[pmartin]

I live in a Victorian property, which is divided into 3 flats and are privately owned.

Our gas, electricity and water metres (9 x metres in total) are located in a type of cellar underneath the external concrete steps.

We are having problems with rain water coming through external brick work, cracks in the concrete etc. plus damp and condensation. The damp is corroding the metres and pipework, and a small amount of rain water has recently been found in the fuse box.

We really want to resolve the problem but not sure how to go about it. Even if we resolved the external problems we still have issues with damp and condensation.

I've made enquiries about getting the cellar tanked to make it watertight/damp free. However, I've been informed that this can be a real hassle as Utility companies need to be involved. Apparently, they have to temporarily extract the metres and our supply, relocate elsewhere until the work is done, and the utility company can charge up to ?5K per metre to do this. The three flats have different utility service providers from each other so this could come to a vast amount of money.

I was wondering if anybody else has had the same problem; what they did about it and whether I've been given the correct information.

Any advice is much appreciated.