Two weeks to completion - garden flooded!

alhenderson

Afternoon All,

We are less than two weeks away from completion, and my wife has come home to find water gushing up from under our block paved driveway and flooding the garden. Just what we didn't need! Anglia Water have yet to arrive so don't yet know what the actual problem is, and who's responsibility it is. It does lead me to a couple of questions..

1. If the leak/burst pipe/whatever is under my property is it my responsibility, or is it not that simple? I believe the pipe to my neighbour's house runs under our shared driveway.

2. If it turns out not to be Anglia Water's problem, will it be mine, or my buyer. I know they had to take out insurance prior to exchange.

I was getting bored packing boxes, but I'd rather be doing that than dealing with insurance companies in the final 10 days of living in the place!!

Any thoughts?

Cheers,
Al.

pinkshoes

Have you actually exchanged?

alhenderson

pinkshoes wrote: »

Have you actually exchanged?

Yes, we exchanged before Christmas.

eddddy

Your solicitor probably used the 'Standard Conditions of Sale 5th Edition' - so risk passes to the buyer on exchange of contracts.

i.e It's down to the buyer to claim on their insurance policy.

But you should contact the buyers to tell them what's happened.

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

alhenderson

I thought it would be the buyer's responsibility, but I asked our solicitors and they said it was probably ours! Might all be a moot point anyway, just talked to the Anglia Water man, and it looks like the problem is with the water main on the path outside our garden. Which would be good news! Flow has abated somewhat, too, so not looking too bad.

If it's the mains pipe, do we have any recourse if the drive needs repairing? Or is that down to our insurance?

Al

Davesnave

alhenderson wrote: »

If it's the mains pipe, do we have any recourse if the drive needs repairing? Or is that down to our insurance?

Al

If the pipe is not yours, i.e before your water meter /stopc0ck, then it's the water authority's problem and they should pay out for damage, as they did recently for someone on another thread who had a burst sewer in the garden.

alhenderson

Davesnave wrote: »

If the pipe is not yours, i.e before your water meter /stopc0ck, then it's the water authority's problem and they should pay out for damage, as they did recently for someone on another thread who had a burst sewer in the garden.

Thanks for that. Anglian Water have confirmed this is the case on Twitter. Think I'll leave that for the buyers to chase up..

Al.

3mph

If you can put together everything for a claim against Anglian Water with dates and facts and copy to your buyer as it will be a real hassle for them anyhow so anything you can do to help will be good.
PS I meant for them to do the claim not you, you just help

ProDave

Surely if the water Co dig up the drive to fix their pipe, they would reinstate the drive as it was before the burst. Surely they would not just leave you a muddy hole.

alhenderson

3mph wrote: »

If you can put together everything for a claim against Anglian Water with dates and facts and copy to your buyer as it will be a real hassle for them anyhow so anything you can do to help will be good.
PS I meant for them to do the claim not you, you just help

Absolutely, I have the job number etc from Anglian and will put something together. May not become obvious if the driveway needs anything fixing immediately, of course... But all the sand that is now on top of the drive was holding the blocks in place this time yesterday..

Al.

alhenderson

ProDave wrote: »

Surely if the water Co dig up the drive to fix their pipe, they would reinstate the drive as it was before the burst. Surely they would not just leave you a muddy hole.

The burst pipe is on the path outside our garden, but the water ended up bubbling up from under our drive due to the way it drained down the slope, so I don't think they'll need to dig up the drive.

Al.