Fell into Water Drain - Missing Manhole cover

phil24_7

I think you may have missed the massive amounts of sarcasm in G_M's post!

Glover1862

Furts wrote: »

I have made a post above and people might think I am not in favour of a claim being made. The reality is this "accident" should not have occurred and OP has suffered as a result. A claim should be made but I suspect OP is far from squeeky clean over numerous issues, hence a claim will not be straight forward. I also expect the claim will be scaled back.

What are these numerous issue that you think I'm not being truthful about? Interestied to know how you have come to that conclusion or do you have nothing better to do than make unfounded allegations ?

Glover1862

Still not good and doctors have given me stronger pain killers and signed me off work for a week, I do a fair amount of driving which I'm struggling with.

My main difficulty is finding out who owns the land, Checked on land registry plan and difficult to see the boundary, the path is so norrow and I can't tell if the red line goes up to the path or includes it. Either way I need to find out who is responsible for it, regardless of any claim. Any idea how I could get a more detailed plan.

Should the water board be checking their manholes regularly regardless who owns the land ? It seems to be a shared storm water drain outside of the gardens.

Furts

Glover1862 wrote: »

What are these numerous issue that you think I'm not being truthful about? Interestied to know how you have come to that conclusion or do you have nothing better to do than make unfounded allegations ?

I did not say you were not being truthful. Equally I am not making unfounded allegations. Indeed, I have made none.

Your response prompts one from me, although unlike you I will try to keep things level headed.

You wish to pursue a claim. That is fine by me, but looking at your post I suggest you need to substantially raise your game. You will be up against insurers who may well pass matters to their Legal Department and then onto Loss Adjusters. Questions will be asked such as...

why were you on the land?

who gave you a right of access?

why do you not know who owns the land?

were you trespassing?

who instructed the fencers to be there?

what was your role under the CDM Regulations?

why did you not remove the board (a sensible thing to do)?

where is your insurance against such accidents?

why have you not previously reported the defect?

where was your Risk Assessment before going down the unknown path?

where is your Duty of Care as a landlord?

what is the legal status of the drain?

who owns the manhole?

is it a lateral drain subject to recent Adoption?

have you been proactive in the Adoption Process?

how long have you owned the property?.. and so on.

These points are straightforward, indeed almost common sense, observations and I will stop the list this point. The fact that you appear to have addressed few, if any, of them suggests to me that you are out of your comfort zone and should be seeking professional advice.

Forum users are a savvy bunch, and many can see the predicament but perhaps you cannot. Sit back and carefully consider if this is the reason many of the replies are not telling you what you wish to hear.

Hope this helps - although judging by your posts I am not expecting any thanks for my time in stating the obvious.