Dispute with water company - what now?

Proxy

Long story, and advice would be appreciated.

We were getting water under our floorboards every time it rained. We called out the water board to see if there was any issue with drainage. Our neighbour had previously had the council out, and his insurers, who both spotted a broken drainage pipe under our land, but had not fixed it.

The first time they came out, they checked the sewerage pipes and nothing else, then denied the existence of the drainage pipe.

The second time, they did the same.

So we paid for independent drainage guys to come out, who said the drainage water pipe was backed up with silt, and was indeed broken once they'd cleared it. They also wrote down on our receipt that it was broken and was the water board's responsibility.

On several more calls, the water board denied this pipe was their responsibility (it's a shared drainage pipe, so is)

Finally, they've decided that a pipe exists, and it is their responsibility.

So they come down and check it, and say its not broken.

What on earth do I do now? It's one word against the other, and they're going to believe their contractors, for sure. But we have had two other sources say otherwise.

I'm still arguing the jot over the phone with them, but they're absolutely useless. With all the failures that went before, and the fact that other contractors say otherwise, I have no reason to believe them.

I will continue to persue the case and take it to ccwater but I just feel so annoyed and unsure of what else I can do.

If any of those useful customer complaints representatives is hanging around, it's Yorkshire water.

Cardew

Proxy wrote: »

On several more calls,



I'm still arguing the jot over the phone with them,

The time for phoning has long since past.

The advice would be to write a concise letter outlining the situation. Send it to the complaints department of the water company and copy to Consumer Council for Water.

Make it clear what action you want to happen.

Gothicfairy

Complex complaints are wasted on phone calls and should only be done in writing.
They have 10 working days to reply to a complain letter and it gives you far more ammo when going to the CCW