Anglian Water leak 30 days to comply

paidinchickens

Hello, I wonder if someone could help me please

We have a friend who moved into his new house on Thursday night.

This morning I went round to help him unpack and AW turned up on the doorstep and said that they had checked the leakage that had been reported and that it was on his side of the meter so he would be liable for the repairs. The man was very apologetic and said once the paperwork goes through then it would have to be fixed in 30 days.

Our friend is retired, partially sighted and diabetic and moved into this small bungalow for an easier life not to be worried sick.


I know the suggested course would be to contact the solicitor but they will not get this sorted in the 30 days.

Has anyone had a similar problem?

PiC x

googler

No, but is it any more of a problem than 'call a plumber'?

paidinchickens

Sorry I should have said the leak is under a long driveway so it would involve the whole lot having to be dug up.

PiC x

cattie

Unless the leak was reported/discovered before completion (& maybe even exchange of contracts, but not sure about that) then the leak would have been the responsibility of the former owner, so wouldn't be worth contacting solicitor otherwise.

I would suggest trying to write to AW explaining about your friends ill health & the fact that he has just moved in to see if there is any leeway on this 30 days period, if in fact it is something it is his responsibility to comply with.

It also doesn't hurt to contact the local mp to see if they can intervene on your friends behalf & perhaps also contact Age Uk to see if they can offer any advice.

Lucky for your friend he has you, as it's stressful enough moving into a new property, without being confronted with a potentially costly problem straight away & having somebody willing to look into things for him must be at least some small relief to him.

paidinchickens

Thank you Cattie ( we foster cats by the way )

The AW man said it had been reported twice during the last year and my friend only exchanged contracts on Wednesday.

We only know him from walking the dogs so we've kind of adopted him

It's really annoying that the owners were aware of the problem as they have had two previous visits.

PiC x

pmlindyloo

In view of the 'urgency' of the situation Aw have some useful information on their website:

http://www.anglianwater.co.uk/household/water-supply/leakage/fixing-leaks.aspx

Can't quite get my head round the fact if it was reported twice in the last year then AW hasn't checked that it was complied with in the 30 days they quoted to your friend.

If your friend has to finance this himself then he will need to probably take court action to get the money refunded if the sellers are 'at fault'.

Fingers crossed that he is covered by insurance.

kingstreet

Is he responsible for insuring the property, or is the property leasehold?

Either way, does the buildings insurance have trace & access cover? The better plans do, more than likely if it's a top of the cheaps aggregator job, it won't.

paidinchickens

It's his own house and he is insured but the poor bu88er has only been in the house for two nights.

System

Was it reported by the previous owner or somebody else?

paidinchickens

It had "two job tickets on the house" and that the house owner had been informed previously on both occasions. AW came to check the meter which had a slow leak and have checked whose side of the meter it's on and said it is his.

Very confusing

PiC x

paidinchickens

I have a jobs number so I will ring AW up Monday.