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Broken manhole cover advice
Comments
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NorfolkBroad wrote: »I was told to just get some durbar plate cut to size by a local fabricator and have just found a company in the nearest town to us who can do this. Can anyone advise what thickness of plate I would need please? It's now only required to support pedestrian traffic. Thanks.
:eek:
Am I the only one who sees the potential for this to open up a huge can of worms in the future?
Surely if you do this and get it wrong (size, thickness, material, etc...) and a member of the public ends up getting hurt or drives over it and damages their car if it collapses then they're going to be knocking on the OP's door for their compo claims!
Personally, I'd be taking the manhole cover back off it, leaving it exposed and ringing the council to point out it's a potential hazard and as such should be replaced by someone before somebody gets hurt.
If I was OP I would not be paying for to replace this myself nor opening myself up for liability in the future by repairing something that's on a public footpath (even if it's just half of it).0 -
No it's not a problem for the public as I replaced it with the matching one in my back garden! I just have to find something to cover up the hole in my patio now.
The skip company said they weren't liable as we invited them onto the property. They also said they might have one knocking about their yard that they could give us but after several emails (and 5 skips delivered/emptied) we never got one.
I'm going to check if the insurance for my plumbing and drainage might cover it as I have to call them in to clear the blocked drain again. Seems the company that cleared it a few months ago didn't get all the remnants of the manhole cover out of the drain after all as it's now backed up and flooded my patio with sewage - eww
If that is no good I guess I'll just have to pay to get it replaced with a new metric one.0 -
You think so? So your driving along the road and you run over one of the hundreds of thousands of manhole covers on our highways and it breaks smashing your suspension to pieces are you now liable to the council for their manhole cover that you have just broken? No of course not and unless the council were aware that the manhole cover was flawed enough to break them they are not liable either.unholyangel wrote: »Are you being serious?
The liability of a risk lies with the party who's control it is within.
Permission to enter someones property does not allow you to damage their property with impunity. It is permission to enter - thats it. Not permission to treat their belongings/property as your own.
Why would you expect a consumer to have intricate knowledge of what kind of damage a truck that size can do but you don't expect those actually operating it to know?
Liability is not as black and white as you seem to think.
A manhole cover is designed to take the weight of vehicles on out roads and that includes heavy trucks.
Were they to blame because the manhole cover was not up to it's job our the householder for putting in an inferior cover in the first place?
So who's control do you think the manhole cover was within?
(Text removed by MSE Forum Team)0 -
Can you categorically state that the same is said for all manhole covers, even those not on the road?
The first thing OP needs to do though is figure out if it forms part of his land or not.
I'd also point out that where a contract is in place, usually the duty of care placed is greater.
(Text removed by MSE Forum Team)You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means - Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride0 -
unholyangel wrote: »
The first thing OP needs to do though is figure out if it forms part of his land or not.
!
As I said earlier, even if the manhole cover is on the OP's land if it is a mains drain serving other properties, I would have thought it is the responsibility of the water company to replace it!0 -
Yes, that is right, but if the manhole is not on the OP's land, he has no responsibility for it anyway*.As I said earlier, even if the manhole cover is on the OP's land if it is a mains drain serving other properties, I would have thought it is the responsibility of the water company to replace it!
*unless of course the owner of the land/manhole pursues the OP for damage caused by the OP's subcontractor.0 -
How is the skip driver supposed to know that the drain cover wouldnt take the weight?0
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