who pays for burst water pipe caused by water board employee?

littlerock

My nephew lives in a small block of flats. He works long hours and is rarely home so felt he would be better off with a water meter and asked for one to be installed. His mother went over to house sit while this happened. The mains supply access to the flats is outside and the water board guy was not sure which was my nephew's.

To cut a long story short, he screwed up and somehow undid the mains pressure valve completrly on neighbouring stopcock. Net result = huge jet of water flooding the road, his supervisor was unable to close it down, and emergency team on-site took some time to fix it. All the while water was flooding out.

It got us thinking, if you have metered water and this happens, who pays? It was midday and there was no oneone home in any of the other flats so the owners are probably none the wiser.

Nephew's mother says no one put a note through any of the doors saying what had happened. I suppose water board employees might go back to base and record the leak and match it against the specific meter and flat affected, but it seems unlikely. Who pays if there is major damage in the road to a metered water supply, not caused by the owner who is not at home at the time and not notified about it. Particularly when damage is caused by water board working on another job?

wealdroam

littlerock wrote: »

My nephew lives in a small block of flats. He works long hours and is rarely home so felt he would be better off with a water meter and asked for one to be installed. His mother went over to house sit while this happened. The mains supply access to the flats is outside and the water board guy was not sure which was my nephew's.

To cut a long story short, he screwed up and somehow undid the mains pressure valve completrly on neighbouring stopcock. Net result = huge jet of water flooding the road, his supervisor was unable to close it down, and emergency team on-site took some time to fix it. All the while water was flooding out.

It got us thinking, if you have metered water and this happens, who pays? It was midday and there was no oneone home in any of the other flats so the owners are probably none the wiser.

Nephew's mother says no one put a note through any of the doors saying what had happened. I suppose water board employees might go back to base and record the leak and match it against the specific meter and flat affected, but it seems unlikely. Who pays if there is major damage in the road to a metered water supply, not caused by the owner who is not at home at the time and not notified about it. Particularly when damage is caused by water board working on another job?

I assume you are asking who pays for the wasted water?

It is unlikely that a water leak in the road is going to affect anyone's metered water usage.
A leak in the road is usually going to be before any meter.

cyclonebri1

"It got me thinking" is the clue.

There is no issue, if the WB caused damage there is a claim, but as said, loss before meter is simple, WE ALL PAY FOR SUPPLIERS COCKUPS, no such thing as no cost to the individual.

Ps, Think less or more as the case may be;););):rotfl:

littlerock

This was not a random leak in the road, it was the result of the water company employee, in the course of examining the supply into the flats, accidentally pulling the top off one of the water meters, where it diverted the mains water into a specific flat.

This meant the water was no longer under pressure and shot into the air, it continued to flood the road for over half an hour until the emergency crew could fix it. So the water actually came out of the place where the user's meter was fixed into the mains supply, because the meter was removed by accident.

littlerock

This was not a random leak in the road, it was the result of a water company employee, in the course of examining the supply into the flats, accidentally breaking the top off one of the water meters (stop cocks) , where it diverted and measured, the mains water into a specific flat.

This meant the mains water was no longer under pressure and shot into the air, it continued to flood the road for over half an hour until the emergency crew could fix it. So the water actually came out of the place where the user's meter was fixed into the mains supply and the stock !!!! there was broken by the water company employee at that point.

wealdroam

littlerock wrote: »

This was not a random leak in the road, it was the result of a water company employee, in the course of examining the supply into the flats, accidentally breaking the top off one of the water meters (stop cocks) , where it diverted and measured, the mains water into a specific flat.

This meant the mains water was no longer under pressure and shot into the air, it continued to flood the road for over half an hour until the emergency crew could fix it. So the water actually came out of the place where the user's meter was fixed into the mains supply and the stock !!!! there was broken by the water company employee at that point.

Post#3 answers your question, doesn't it?

Jonesya

The water company would have to fix the damaged meter and stop tap, but other than that what damage has been done? Who has suffered?

peachyprice

Jonesya wrote: »

The water company would have to fix the damaged meter and stop tap, but other than that what damage has been done? Who has suffered?

I think what OP is asking is who pays for the water if the leak is the customer side of the meter. ie pipe in, water meter, pipe out, the WB break the pipe out so the water rushes through the meter at an alarming rate.

I assume the WB know about the leak and will know the rate of flow and roughly how long it was leaking and will adjust the bill accordingly.

littlerock

Thanks peachyprice that IS what I meant. My sister says the break in the pipe appeared to be the stopcock on the customer's side of the meter, (not a random leak in the road as some here seem to misread.). There is a bank of meters/stopcocks in the road outside where the mains is diverted to the flats. The break was to the stopcock where it feeds the customers supply.

It was caused by a water authority employee inspecting the meters there. He somehow wrenched off a stopcock linked linked to a customers meter. Who lived in the flats.

She was not optimistic that the water authority employees would go back to the ranch and fill in a form (if indeed that is what happens) to ensure the customer whose meter was broken would have their bill adjusted accordingly. She was concerned that the water released would end up being charged to the customer.

wealdroam

littlerock wrote: »

...not a random leak in the road as some here seem to misread.

Well I read this in the original post:

littlerock wrote: »

Who pays if there is major damage in the road to a metered water supply, not caused by the owner who is not at home at the time and not notified about it. Particularly when damage is caused by water board working on another job?

casper_g

littlerock wrote: »

Who pays if there is major damage in the road to a metered water supply...

I interpreted "metered" in the above to mean the OP was talking about a leak downstream of an individual meter.