Should i be informed?!

spadoosh

Hi all, think this is in the right place and really dont want to sound like a whiney sod.

On friday (after finishing a week of nights!! obv not there problem but thought i'd chuck it in there!) Had some workmen knock on the door asking if the gas was on, the missus checked and it wasnt. He also mentioned that if we needed our cars in the next three days they should be moved.

So all day friday and all day saturday (they did reconnect at night time) no gas so essentially i was coming home from nights to discover i couldnt have a bath, couldnt use my drive and obviously couldnt sleep cos of their bloody digger grrr!! O and it was bloody cold too!

Now i know this is a 'what if' situation but me and the missus normally have fridays off and take one of our cars and go out for the day leaving the other on the drive which wouldve been blocked in all weekend if we were out.

Im under the impression any major utilities work that needs doing that will cause a disturbance they should inform you is this correct? If so is there anyone i can contact to ensure they inform us of any future works?! Or is it just a case of pot luck and hope your not in the unofrtunate situation like my neighbour were the car is sat on the drive with a 6ft cubed hole preventing her from taking her car off the drive.

Sorry if its a bit long tend to use 10 words when one will do!

spiro

Unless it is an emergency you will normally receive advance notification. This could just be in the form of a card through your door a week or 2 before.

What work are they doing?

spadoosh

Cheers for the reply. Wouldve said they were playing with the gas mains but noticed the water pressure seems to have increased in the house so possibly that. Wouldnt have said it was an emergency, weve had all the utilities working and no problems in the street as far as im aware. But definately not an expert as you can tell.

lemontart

what company were they from. what is the name of the company on the vans, are the works confined to a small area or along the road?

spadoosh

think it was a balfour beatty (sp) van and theyve dotted about 5 or 6 holes on the road mainly outside mine and the neigbours. They recently resurfaced the road across from us but dont think that is much to do with it.

JC_Derby

Sounds like a fault/leak

Basically unless you live on a super busy road, then the teams would have been working during the day.
if it was planned work then they should have carded you and they would have worked during the day (except for the busy road scenario).
However sounds to me like some sort of leak, which they failed to find quickly or was difficult to repair.
as for them blocking your neighbour on the drive, she shuld raise a complaint about this and follow it though with a written letter...unless she agreed to it being ok.

undaunted

I think you've got to be realistic / reasonable - planned & routine maintenance work & I'd expect to get notice. Sudden leak / emergency & I would expect fixing it to be the priority - though giving the 2 minute option to move your car if necessary & you were in wouldn't seem unreasonable unless there was an immediate threat of explosion.

Perhaps make a polite enquiry / complaint to the relevant supplier about what they were doing?

cottonhead

They are doing the same thing outside my house - complete with temp traffic lights so a permanent queue of traffic ( with radios blaring ) outside my living room! Nobody knocked or sent leaflets etc but there was a small sign up a few weeks prior and lots of pipes etc being delivered and markings made on the road so it was obvious something was going to happen.
With the temp traffic lights there would have to be an application to the council highways department so it would have been mentioned in the local paper where all the TTO's ( temporrary traffic orders ) are listed but I dont make a habit of checking them !
In your case because you were left without heating I believe they should have informed you - usually by way of a leafllet beforehand unless it was an emergency. Write to the company and have a moan if it makes you feel better ( I would !ha ha ! ) but I guess there is little to be done now.
One morning I came out the bath au natural to find a man up a ladder outside the window !! Come round to replace tiles on the shared roof but nobody had bothered to tell us !