Laminate floor ruined by Fitters. Liabilty denied

Moleyredcrow

I had a laminate floor installed this April by an apparently reputable company who use their own fitters. My husband had the washing machine unplumbed. The fitters told me there was a split in the cold water-feed hose, offered to buy me a new one, and then plumbed it in for me without me asking them to. Weeks later I found a drip from the cold water feed that was going down back of under-sink cupboard. My husband found that the fitters had not tightened a jubilee clip and that was causing the leak. Then I noticed the laminate bubbling up. I called the company; the owner came out today and variously told me: his fitters plumbed in washing machine as a 'gesture of goodwill' and I shouldn't be asking him to take money off them to repair the floor; they are not plumbers; the fitters are told never to touch appliances; I have 4 pipes under my sink and he only has my word for what happened; I could have unplumbed it, and replumbed it after they had gone. He refuses to take any reponsibilty. I paid £948 to this company and half the floor is ruined. Help!

iamcornholio

Gesture of good will or not, there is liability attached if they did not do the hose fitting properly and this caused subsequent damage.

But you may have a very hard time proving their negligence - as opposed to some natural or later loosening of the clip

"I was very careful to tighten it and checked it three times before putting the machine back in" is going to be difficult to disprove

tizerbelle

Honestly, don't think you stand a chance of any recompense here.

The fitters fitted the laminate flooring which is what they are paid for. Presumably the floor was fitted correctly as you paid them.

Okay you didn't ask them to plumb the washer in but you knew they were floor fitters not plumbers, you could have asked them to stop, you could/should have checked the fitting before you used the machine. You are responsible for what happens in your house - would you let a window cleaner fix your gas boiler?

So IMO, you could have foreseen that a floor fitter might not know how to plumb in a washer so at least should have checked what they had done.

phill99

I agree with the above 2 posts. You had knowledge that they were not plumbers and you accepted their plumbing work based on this knowledge.

There would be an onus on you to check the plumbing youself or get a plumber into check it.

Don't think you have a chance in hell.

Moleyredcrow

I know I would have a hard time proving it. But I was not in the house at the time they fitted it, so I could hardly stop them. It is hardly the same as letting a window cleaner fix a gas boiler. Most people plumb in washing machines themselves. It is an extemely simple procedure.

phill99

Moleyredcrow wrote: »

I know I would have a hard time proving it. But I was not in the house at the time they fitted it, so I could hardly stop them. It is hardly the same as letting a window cleaner fix a gas boiler. Most people plumb in washing machines themselves. It is an extemely simple procedure.

Evereything is simple if you know how. Neurosurgery is simple to a neuro-surgeon.

Just because you find something simple, you can't assume that we all do. Unfortunately the responsibility lies with you to ensure that the plumbing was done properly. You knew they were floor fitters, not plumbers.

olias

OP. Have you considered claiming on your house insurance? It might be the best and quickest solution all round. Apart from your excess, it shouldn't cost either, as when you look to get another policy next year, I have noticed that a lot of insurers only ask if you have had 2 or more claims in the last three years, so it shouldn't affect your premium.

Olias

keystone

If the owner of the business isn't going to pay I agree with others. Snowballs in hell stand a better chance than getting compensation out of him directly. However, he is not being very customer friendly and don''t know how he expects to gain recommends by behaving in this way. It should be no skin off his nose - its what he carries 3rd Party Liability Insurance for.

Likewise (and Olias is quite right here) this is what you have house insurance for. Now whether you just claim for the floor on the basis of a leak occuring or whether you tell the insurance company exactly what happened and then let them deal with his insurers is up to you.

Cheers

phill99

keystone wrote: »

If the owner of the business isn't going to pay I agree with others. Snowballs in hell stand a better chance than getting compensation out of him directly. However, he is not being very customer friendly and don''t know how he expects to gain recommends by behaving in this way. It should be no skin off his nose - its what he carries 3rd Party Liability Insurance for.

Likewise (and Olias is quite right here) this is what you have house insurance for. Now whether you just claim for the floor on the basis of a leak occuring or whether you tell the insurance company exactly what happened and then let them deal with his insurers is up to you.

Cheers

At the moment we are all waving fingers and pointing at the fitter, but it may not have been them that caused the leak. It can never be proved that they did.

And that is exactly what the business owner will say, so will his insurers. Its up to the plaintiff to prove that the leak was caused by the fitters, not the fitters themselves to prove that they didn't do it.

Strangled

I'm a floorlayer and never re-plumb washers etc, this being the reason why.

tizerbelle

Moleyredcrow wrote: »

But I was not in the house at the time they fitted it, so I could hardly stop them. It is hardly the same as letting a window cleaner fix a gas boiler. Most people plumb in washing machines themselves. It is an extemely simple procedure.

So when you got back and the washer was in place did you not check it? For all you knew having not been there at the time - they could have just put the washer back in position and not plumbed it in at all.

You won't get anything from the company - the company has no liability to you for plumbing - your contract with them was to fit a floor only. The boss says employees shouldn't do plumbing so employee was acting outside of his remit so nothing to do with the company. You could try going after the individual fitter but you're not going to get anywhere. Claiming on your home insurance is going to be the only way to get the floor replaced/repaired (assuming you can't pay for it out of your own pocket and dont mind your premiums going up)