Mains water pipe leaking, Helllpppp me please

Terry161157

Please please please can somebody help me, I have been told by Anglia Water that there's a leak under my driveway, the water bill is £655, the cost to fix the leak is £800 plus vat, I cannot afford the repair, so I begun trying to dig down to do it myself, I have only dug down 300mm and found the water main pipe, it's supposed to be 750mm min and 1350 max depth, so my question is why and how was the original pipe fitting allowed to have been installed at such a shallow depth, this has obviously had a detrimental effect on the pipe as my car is constantly being driven over it, I am tempted to go back to AW and tell them that it is not my fault that the pipe was fitted so shallow and therefore I should not be expected to do the fix at total cost to myself.... Has anybody else had a similar experience and what was the outcome?. I am really at the end of my tether.

Ms_Chocaholic

Is the leak covered on your home insurance?

Terry161157

Ms_Chocaholic wrote: »

Is the leak covered on your home insurance?

I'm not sure, I'm having an assessor visit tomorrow to say yes or no, I'm not optimistic though as they have already stated on the phone that I'm only covered for accidental damage to the mains water pipe.

marleyboy

Ideal.....You did not deliberately cause the leak did you?

Terry161157

marleyboy wrote: »

Ideal.....You did not deliberately cause the leak did you?

No mate, definitely not, it only came to light when the meter was read, the problem looks to be due to the shallow depth of the pipe and as I park my car on it every day it's obviously been compressing over a course of 5 years

macman

To state the obvious, AW did not install the supply pipe. The house builder did, probably decades ago. Anything downstream of the meter or street stopc*ck is your property and your responsibility.
When you bought the house you bought it with any defects it had, visible or not. Not your fault, but certainly your responsibility.

matelodave

Had the same situation last year - all sorted out by the house insurance - just cost me the excess of £200. I had 30 days to sort out the problem and Anglian Water then asked me for two readings fourteen days apart to be taken after the repair was completed so they could estimate what they thought I'd lost. This I did and they refunded me £108 which was about what I estimated we'd lost.
I read the meter quite often so the leak was spotted quite quickly and we didn't lose vast quantities of water (about 1 cu.m a day, whereas we only use just over 1 cu.m a week)


Mine was builders rubble which had penetrated the pipe - the house was built in 1986 so it took 27 years - we had a blockpaved drive laid in 2011 which might have shifted the rubble a bit although rubble & rubbish should not have been chucked on the pipe when it was installed.

mart.vader

Ask for Leakage Allowance Form


http://www.anglianwater.co.uk/household/your-account/checking-for-leaks.aspx

Most Water Cos provide a subsidised pipe repair or replacement scheme - I can't see that AW do, but you could ask them.

Terry161157

Well today the contractor who was sent by the insurance company came and got straight down to finding and repairing the leak, which surprised me as they said they were going to assess it first before acknowledging it as covered by my insurance policy, so now the leak has been fixed, I'm just hoping that I don't receive a nasty bill through the post to cover the work done, I would have thought I would have been told this before any work was undertaken, but in this mad and crazy world where my excess was taken before the work commenced I really do not know.... Fingers crossed...