Water Board - Leak + Insurance / Compensation?

tiger48

Folks a bit of advice welcomed.
Our next door neighbours mains pipe runs through our garden, in fact until a few years ago his meter was in our garden ( in a brick pit ). After a few heated discussions the local W/Board relocated it, because aside from the hassle of them wanting access it leaked from time to time. So they moved the meter and made good the 'join'......except they clearly didn't make the repair 'that good'.
This pit is in a corner of the garden hidden away and as such we don't really see it / keep an eye on it. Last Thursday i happened to want something from one of our outbuildings which is sited a few feet from the pit and found that the floor was soaking wet.

Investigating showed that sure enough the pit was full of water a sure sign that there was a slow leak. The whole area below the pit and around the outbuilding is sodden. The outbuiling is block built in the form of 2 small stables. In teh first the floor has basically 'failed', the concrete is now so powdery that a tap with a bit of wood makes it crumble. The second unit floor seems more solid, but hard to tell at this stage as there's various bits n pieces in there and that one is holding more water ( not totally flooded but wet).

Reported the leak Thurs. They sent a guy out who failed to ring as per instruction as our entryphone isnt working. By chance saw the van and grabbed him. Clearly uninterested in fixing there and then as it was nigh on 5pm. A call the next day yielded the promise of someone coming that day (fri ) - needless to say no one appeared.

My question relates to reasonable responsibility and claim for damage. The Board have said that they won't investigate the damage until teh repair is effected - understandable. But i'm curious as to how such claim/damage is reasonably assesed and dealt with.
To my mind its the Boards responsibility as the leak is not on my pipe, nor has it reached my neighbours meter. I'm not sure if that assumption is correct?

secondly, how the heck does one assess and agree damage.
Clearly tthe floor is shot which is shot after having goodness knows how much water under it for the past months. So again i'd assume it was a 'given' that that would be repaired + made good. Presuamby the same would be true for bits n pieces that have been affected by the water/damp ?
BUT one of the bigger concerns is the fact that the leak is close to our boundary and a large part of the water has been forming a mini stream/quagmire and seeping down our tree line ( evergreen/configer type trees). We've lost a couple a bit farther down the garden and am wondering if there's a link. If there is would/could this form part of a damage claim and how would one go about discussing / proving as the trees may take a while to actually die( rotted rootball etc).......

so to sum up>
is the leak the responsibility of the WBoard
If so should claiming against them / their insuarnce be straightforward ( tips?)
Given that damage is to property ( not just material posessions) is it their job to provide an engineer type report to confirm damage
can one leave a claim open for damage that may not be readily apparent ( ie/ damage to footings, trees etc)

sorry for the long post, but wanted to lay out the sceneraio fully.
thx in advance
Mark

1952bob

Offwat may be the quickest and most effective route to a solution given that you have tried withot success to follow the 'official route to repair'.
It may well be that the pipe if it is copper, is pourous along the whole length and should be replaced, if this is so then it may be a good time to re route it away from your property. Remember that the water board require your permission to come onto your property, this you could refuse and one outcome could be that they have to re route the pipe, another outcome is that they could claim that you are being unreasonable and fail to fix the leak.
You may be able to withdraw the consent that was given for the pipe to cross your property, this again would force the water board to re route the pipe.

mart.vader

tiger48,

OFWAT will not help at all. Other posters may tell you that they will, but just try writing to them for a definitive answer. It will be a resounding "NO"

Is the leaking pipe only supplying your neighbour? And the water pipe supplying you is completely separate? Or is your pipe a branch of "his" pipe. Is your neighbours meter now located on the public footpath?

The legal situation is that the pipes under the public foot-way / highway, are the responsibility of the W. Co. up to the point at which they pass into private land, then they are owned and maintained by the owner of the land.

So technically you should repair it, BUT, if the W. Co will accept that they caused the leak when they removed the meter, then of course, they should pay for the repair and the damage. They may offer a subsidised repair.

If the W. Co don't accept this, there is also an odd situation that arises that, if you ask your neighbour to repair the pipe (which only supplies him), and if he refuses, you can cut the pipe off, and leave him without water. Harsh, but possible.

If there is any covenant for the pipe to run through your land, I guess you would have to examine the covenant. What happens if you withdraw the consent, I don't know, but I doubt that the W. Co will step up, and offer to re-route the pipe.

I hope you have insurance. I am six years into a dispute with Veolia Water Central, and am about £5K out of pocket. They refuse to accept responsibility for the damage done by their leaks, even though they had eight leaks on their pipework, that they were completely unable to find for two years, until the public highway was ruined and £250,000 worth of damage had been caused. (of which they paid ZERO.) (This is one of the water companies that are going to introduce a hose-pipe ban in a few days ! )

Kind of fills you with confidence, don't it !

tiger48

right:
yes the leaking pipe is only suppying my neighbour.
Its a weird situation / layout. The mains pipe comes from the lane and across the first part of his driveway ( he has a long drive alongside our boundary ) somewhere from there it Tees off to our house and then its natural line means that it leaves his property and runs across part of our garden.

In the past the W/Board havent raised the issue of who has responsibility when they a/ fixed or tried to fix the leaks around that meter nor subsequently when they relocated that meter. ALTHOUGH when there was a leak ( in no way related to this current leak) between the lane and our properties they pushed the problem back in our joint direction.

So by the sounds of it they may try and wriggle out of having the responsibility for damage in which case i guess i'd be faced with claiming off either my insurance or neighbours insurance. Messy!

mart.vader

tiger48,

I don't know what to advise, mate - you can try telling the W. Co it's their responsibility, then if they refuse to accept it, you can involve your insurance co, (who should send a Loss adjuster - and do a report on the damage and who he believes is at fault) If they can shift the blame and the costs onto the W Co or your neighbour, they will do so.

You need to be aware that even though it's not your fault, your Ins co. may put a loading on your policy. (Mine put a note on my policy, which means that no other Ins co will touch my property until I get this sorted)

I notice that you said the W Co would not send anyone to investigate the damage until the leak is fixed. This is quite wrong, of them. If it's their leak, i.e. they caused it when they moved the meter (poor joints?) then they should send their own loss adjuster to investigate.

As you can see, this has potential for several conflicting opinions and reports by various parties - and we haven't even considered your neighbours Ins co and their loss adjuster !

tiger48

chased them up on both counts this monring. Apparently all repair work subbed out to Clancy Dowcra and still no sight of anyone coming round.
On the damage front they will not speak to anyone until a paper trail is established - so emailed them to outline the broad brushstroke of damage inviting them to respond with how they envisage putting things right......needless to say they 'may take up to 10 days to reply'.....in which case they'll be responding quicker than the repair techies!