Carbon Monoxide poisoning!

jenthis

Hi there.
I really hope someone can help me.
I have had homecare cover with eon since Aug 2011. I have all of the paperwork signed by their engineers when they have serviced my boiler. Nov 2012, my 4 year old son, 12 month old daughter, partner and myself all experienced carbon monoxide poisoning due to incorrect fitting of the flue on the boiler. I have all all documentation to prove this. I have requested all of my money back from E.on as they always marked off my boiler as safe and correct when it clearly was not!

Do I have a right to do this?

To add to this my son has had numerous admissions to hospital with asthma and breathing difficulties and has ended up very poorly on HDU. He has suffered so much and his GP tells me this could all be down to the constant low level carbon monoxide leak in our house. My daughter has always been poorly too. No addmission to hospital but was constatly sick and lost wieght. She has been fine since we made the disscovery!

We have been intouch with a solicitor with regards to the gas safe engineer who fitted the boiler incorrectly but I want my money back and want to cancel with E.on as I can no longer trust them.

Thank you for reading! x

Equaliser123

jenthis wrote: »

Hi there.
I really hope someone can help me.
I have had homecare cover with eon since Aug 2011. I have all of the paperwork signed by their engineers when they have serviced my boiler. Nov 2012, my 4 year old son, 12 month old daughter, partner and myself all experienced carbon monoxide poisoning due to incorrect fitting of the flue on the boiler. I have all all documentation to prove this. I have requested all of my money back from E.on as they always marked off my boiler as safe and correct when it clearly was not!

Do I have a right to do this?

To add to this my son has had numerous admissions to hospital with asthma and breathing difficulties and has ended up very poorly on HDU. He has suffered so much and his GP tells me this could all be down to the constant low level carbon monoxide leak in our house. My daughter has always been poorly too. No addmission to hospital but was constatly sick and lost wieght. She has been fine since we made the disscovery!

We have been intouch with a solicitor with regards to the gas safe engineer who fitted the boiler incorrectly but I want my money back and want to cancel with E.on as I can no longer trust them.

Thank you for reading! x

If you can demonstrate that the illnesses have been caused or aggravated by Eon's negligence, then I would suggest you speak to a solicitor with experience of pursuing personal injury claims.

pmduk

I'd also investigate with Gas Safe, as it sounds as though their engineer didn't do his job properly.

But please, buy a carbon monoxide detector, your family's health and safety is surely worth the £20-£30 involved?

ValHaller

Normally, you should not cancel without giving the other party the chance to put things right. But in this case, I think that Eon's breach of a duty of care is sufficiently gross that a court would agree with you cancelling immediately if Eon tried to push the matter. I suggest that you write a short letter to cancel with immediate effect, citing the reason as a gross breach of a duty of care and indicate that you will be referring the matter of their role in the CO poisoning of your family to your legal advisors.

How did you discover the CO (carbon monoxide) leak?

yangptangkipperbang

pmduk wrote: »

But please, buy a carbon monoxide detector,

......make sure that what you buy is a CO Alarm - it is possible to buy cheap alarmless detectors - these will only tell the emergency services what killed you !!
There are some CO alarms which are mains powered and you just plug them into a 13A socket. Not really recommended because CO is very similar in density to breathable air - but as it is produced by combustion it will be hot and will rise at first, an alarm mounted near to the ceiling is much better for early detection.

Equaliser123

Agree with the comments regarding CO alarms. Should be made compulsory in all houses.

Have 2 in our house just in case. A decent one (e.g. Kidde) are often on offer for less than £15.

molerat

Kidde battery operated currently £8 in Asda

ValHaller

yangptangkipperbang wrote: »

......make sure that what you buy is a CO Alarm - it is possible to buy cheap alarmless detectors - these will only tell the emergency services what killed you !!

There used to be some chemical type detector strips which go dark if there is a long term CO problem. On their own, they may be only useful for the coroner, as you say. But if and only if you have a CO alarm, the detector strips may be a useful accessory to give warning of a long term CO problem below the alarm threshold.

arcon5

Where was the leak coming from?
Any idea how long it could have been leaking?
When did EON last do an inspection?

As of yet there is no indication that EON have breached their duty of care or their contract.

If for example the service contract involves a yearly inspection & they inspected Aug 2012 - it could well be the leak did not occur until after this inspection. In a way it's a bit like an MOT on a car, it's roadworthy at a specific point in time - but not necessarily the week after the test being performed.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Hi jenthis

I'm really sorry you and your family have suffered in this way.

If we've contributed to this in any way whatsoever then this needs to go to our top managers. I'll be happy to start the ball rolling for you.

Please drop an email to the address in my Profile and I'll jump right on it.

I do understand you're not out of the woods yet but sincerely hope the health of you and your family starts to improve soon.

Malc

jenthis

Thank you for all of your replies. It was an alarm that we had purchased. We set it up and that night it went off!

I agree, every houshold should be made to have one!

with regards to Eon- The new boiler was fitted first. We cancelled our old cover with homserve as they did not cover such a new boiler and I set up cover with Eon as they advised they could cover us. The engineer came out to do an inital full service and our cover was set up. The boiler was deemed safe in all aspects (including the flueing position)

Once we set up the co2 alarm it went off that very same evening. We all had symptoms over a long period of time but as the boiler was serviced AND was fitted by a "gas safe enginner" (we even made sure we checked his card and found his details on the gas safe register!!) we never linked the two up.

Once we left hospital we went to stay at my mother inlaws and rang Eon the very next day. We were advised that they could do nothing for us until health and safetly had been intouch with us, So we rang health and safety and they told us it can take weeks for them to investigate and they wernt even sure why this case had been passed onto them. They advised that Eon should carry on with their job- that is to investigate and diagnose the problem then FIX it! I was passed from pillar to post and still, EON would not budge. I spent over 4 days on and off the phone litterally begging EON to help us. In the end they wouldn't even take my calls! What sort of service is this?? We were left with no heating or hot water in November. I advised them that my son had asthma and was very vunerable and also a just turned 12 month old baby..but again, no help.

It may sound ridiculous but EON has caused so much stress to myself and family in the time we needed them most. We were not only ill from the poisoning but then had no home to go to to relax.This caused me numerous anxiety attacks and I was so worried my children would end up back in hospital-especially my son who has been so poorly. I just hope it doesnt have any further effect on their health.

I have had a responce from EON and they want copies of the discharge sheets from hospital and the diagnosis from the engineer who advised us of the incorrect flueing positioning. I will be sending the documents off at the end of the week. Fingers crossed!3

I have also been intouch with a solicitor with regards to the engineer who fitted it. They say I have a case. I just hope to god there arnt any other families effected by this so called "profesional."

Thanks again guys!