Flooded Cellar - Uninsured Losses Help

timkidney

Hello all

We had our cellar\utility room flooded at the end of Sep with over a foot of water covering the floor and all belongings. Called Wessex Water and they were out within 30 mins to deal with the problem. As we have a shared drain system they said on the phone and when they turned up it is the responsibility of Wessex Water. After we cleared the water they eventually found that a water trap in our front garden fitted by Wessex Water many years ago was the fault, they used a long 2 metre plunger which moved the blockage.

2 weeks later the same happened again this time with over 2 foot of water covering the cellar. Again Wessex Water turned up in prompt time and cleared the blockage taking lots of photos of the damage. They had to crack open our drain in the cellar to try and let some water escape and then again plunged the water trap in the front garden clearing the problem. When they were onsite they mentioned that an email was going around relating to our property and that it had been recommended to remove the u bend trap which is 2 metres under ground and replace it with a straight run pipe.

They started work yesterday digging up our front garden to remove the trap and u bend and replace it with a straight pipe.

The problem we have now is we have an expensive washing machine, tumble dryer and everything that was on the floor up to a height of 2 foot, as well as the worktop units, skirting board and plaster walls that had all been submerged in water for at least a night until we discovered the problem and started to clear it down.

Both appliances do not work so will need replacing, as well as a whole load or xmas decs, clothes, suit cases, small kitchen appliances and other misc items. We have also had to use the launderette to wash and dry so cost accumulating here.

Unfortunately we do not have contents insurance so have made contact with WW to advise that we have suffered a great deal of loss due to this problem. They had already sent us £398 which they give you for each event so £199 a time. And now since we have made contact with them to ask how to claim they have said it is not there responsibilty but will offer us £500 to replace the appliances??

Now this baffles me as ive never known any company offer a considerable amount of money for something they are saying is not there fault? As well as a company that would repair the issue or what they deem the issue again even though it is not there fault?

So im hoping someone can give me some advice or what rights we have? We have cleared out a third of the cellar and there is for sure well over £1000 of damage in contents alone yet the work that may need to be done to fix the units and skirting\plaster etc.

Ive never had to claim for anything and am still in shock with the amount of time we have spent trying to clear it out and recover all the sewage soaked items. Im just after what we had before the floods but again would really like to know where i stand before we accept any offer from them.

Hope someone can help.

spiro

The first thing I would say is not to throw anything away until you have determined who is liable to pay and they have sent an assessor around.

Some firms can offer a 'no fault goodwill gesture' which the £500 sounds like.

Did all the damage occur during the first flood? If that is the case then I would personally think WW would case it as accidental damage and not negligent.

If they claim on the first visit that they had resolved the problem and then further items got damaged I think you could possibly blame them for that damage.

macman

£1000 in contents in your cellar alone, but no contents insurance? Seems a strange balance of priorities to me.
If you want to negotiate the compensation, then without insurance or legal cover you'll need to take your own civil action against them if you think it worthwhile, and maybe employ a loss adjuster to quantify the damage.

Rovver125

With my experience within the industry, I would recommend you keep pestering them with letters, phone calls, emails etc, maybe contact the local press with your story. From what I've seen, usually when a victim of flooding keeps pestering the responsible water board, eventually they will cave in to pressure and pay out a bit more if it means putting an end to the situation.

I know that it is their responsibility to ensure your cellar has been cleaned up i.e. all sewage removed, area sanitised etc.

It sounds like they are being pro-active to the situation in removing the interceptor from the manhole in your garden, hopefully this will aleviate the risk of it happening again.

However, these things do happen, often caused by idiots further up the line putting things down the toilet they shouldn't be. Is the drain in your cellar your responsibility or is it on the public sewer line? If it is public, I would be pushing Wessex to put a sealed cover on it. Even if it is your own private drain, I would still do this yourself, although be aware that could push the flooding somewhere even more inconvenient if there are any blockages in the future.

Hope you get it sorted, I see the distress caused by sewer flooding on a regular basis and always feel for the people affected. It's one of the reasons I check the drains on my own property regularly.

Hope you're going to get insurance now!