Oil leak into next door.....

sportsarb

Suffered a leak from my oil pipe and it has gone through my wall and into next doors kitchen. Now apparently it hasn't done a huge amount of damage but there is some remedying work to be done.

The floor will be injected with some stuff and not sure what else will be done.

I have home insurance, so do next door, I've made a claim on mine.

Anyone have any clue what this is going to cost me?

bingo_bango

I'm going to guess that the only actual cost to you is going to be the excess on your own home policy, and then increased premiums for a few years until you can begin to build up a no claims bonus again.

How much to repair both properties??? That will depend on the amount of damage to the properties. I suspect it will be the wrong side of £3k though.

Just be grateful you have insurance!

Zola.

Thats what insurance is for, you'll be alright

sportsarb

Thanks for the replies guys.

I think in my blind panic I forgot exactly what the insurance was for, but, at the same time I did also want to know what it would cost if for whatever reason I did have to pay for it myself.

The contractor from my insurance was out today and they reassured me on a few things. Mostly, that I did what I had to when I had to, and pretty much did my job as a responsible homeowner. I didn't cause damage to the piping and that what happened (A join that people now know not to make because the kerosene melts the join) is actually quite common.

I don't think the damage is ridiculous on the other side of the wall but it isn't insignificant either.

One final question, do oil companies provide services to empty oil tanks?

Denene

sportsarb wrote: »

One final question, do oil companies provide services to empty oil tanks?

They should be able to. When we had oil, the company was able to extract it from the tank after delivering too much once. I can't remember whether we had any hassle getting them to do it, but the actual process was pretty straightforward.

From a quick Google, these guys offer an extraction/transfer service, and I'm sure there are others local to you who will do the same.

(My sympathies, btw. I spent a very tedious weekend once scrubbing oil from my neighbours' driveway after our tank leaked many years ago. They were... not happy)

sportsarb

Thanks for that Denene, I had searched but was unable to find anyone who explicitly said they did it, so it's good to know the service exists.

Not just because of this but I have been considering moving away from oil and towards gas. The fact that I've waited until gas is more expensive is not lost on me.

Denene

I'm on gas now and I wouldn't go back. We always seemed to run out of oil on the coldest night of the year, or on Christmas Eve or something. The tanker got wedged beneath a tree on our driveway, we had 2 tanks leak, and some sneaky little thieves came and siphoned oil into barrels to steal once (we scared them off midway through!)

Obviously gas isn't perfect either, but have had tons less trouble with it! Also, I much prefer knowing how much I will pay each month rather than having to pay for a tank-fill at irregular and unpredictable intervals - although I know you can set up direct debit for oil deliveries now.

Old_Git

my sister had an oil leak in her garden. There was some debate as to was responsible (her or the neighbour ) . Both claimed from their own insurance .My sisters claim was £6,000 .That was 13years ago.

sportsarb

Old_Git wrote: »

my sister had an oil leak in her garden. There was some debate as to was responsible (her or the neighbour ) . Both claimed from their own insurance .My sisters claim was £6,000 .That was 13years ago.

Yeah, I've heard that when it affects the garden and they have to dig it up then it significantly increases the cost. As far as I am aware this didn't go as far as their garden.

I wish it was over and I knew exactly what was happening, I mean, there are contractors coming to do some work at the behest of the insurance crowd so I am assuming that this means they have accepted my claim.

I am totally clueless at how this all works.

CEON44

A friend of mine had a seriuos problem with leaking oil. At the start he thought it was a minor issue but it turned out very bad. Problem was caused by a builder who was building a garage for my friend. A digger accidently broke the oil pipe and it wasnt noticed for a few days. Anyway the upshot was that he had to get all his ground floor concrete dug up in the house as the oil had seeped through. Cost thousands to put right plus a successful court case against the builder. Total nightmare which dragged on for over 3 years

mummy72

HI
We had a oil leak a few years ago. Just had our tank filled and noticed a week later the fill level had dropped about a foot. Contacted our home insurance and the guy came out checked everything and work started the next day. Drained the oil into a temporary tank so we could still have heating and then the ground had to be checked, a company came out and drilled into our garden in various places and also neighbours , thankfully it hadn't gone to neighbours and hadn't gone under the house but our garden had to be dug up and they had to go quite deep, all work was covered by our insurance except for a new oil tank and of course our excess, total of work was a few hundred pounds under £15000, thank goodness our insurance covered it and it took weeks for all the work to be completed. I dreaded our renewal as I expected the premium to go way up but it was only £20 extra.