Manhole disaster

aimeecooperx

Hi, I need some advice! 

My boyfriend and I moved into our first home three weeks ago, a Redrow new build. I hate to name the company because I’m not by any means trying to tarnish their reputation, but I’m not sure if different companies have different policies on certain things which might affect advice given. After a week we started noticing a horrible smell in the downstairs toilet, the shower wasn’t draining sufficiently and because of that it was flooding, and the upstairs toilet was backing up when it was being flushed. We contacted our customer adviser at redrow who said someone would be out to look at the issues. They said there was nothing wrong with the shower and toilets, but said they’d send the drains team out to investigate. They came and after a short while they said couldn’t find access to drains, they said they’d go and find the site manager and come back. They never returned. We contacted them again and they said they’re investigation was ongoing and they’d finish tomorrow and we’d find out more. We never heard anything. We contacted out of hours who sent a drain specialist who said every property but ours has access via a manhole, so the next thing to do would be to dig up the paving flags and connect access to a manhole. He advised us that when redrow tell us that, that we say we want it hidden like every other property on the street.

Two days later with still no contact from redrow, they rang to say they had already that morning whilst we’d been at work installed the manhole cover in the tarmac. This we were fine with, in theory. We got home from work to find it hadn’t been put in the tarmac, but in fact was right outside our front door, uncovered. 

We complained stating that we were unhappy with the lack of contact, how it hasn’t been hidden like all other plots’ manholes have been, and how they did this on our property without our permission. 

We requested that it is either moved to somewhere like the tarmac, grass or bark like every other house so it can be hidden, or lowered and covered / have a recessed lid installed. They have replied effectively saying it’s not their fault and they won’t change it. 

Can you advise us on where we stand please? 

jimbog

Put it on twitter with pictures

Unicorn_cottage

Pics? Would never ever trust a developer. The shocking things I have seen!

frogglet

Surely manholes are put where there are joins and bends in pipes. They can't always be hidden.
Did they leave an open drain with no lid outside your front door?

HobgoblinBT

Contact their press office. Draw their attention to this thread and quote their mission statement from their website and set out how their actions have not lived up to it.  Tell them that you would appreciate them investigating the matter and resolving the issue for you.  If not, post your complaint on their social media sites and copy in their CEO.   

From their website “We live in challenging times. While we are proud of our achievements and focused on our purpose of creating a better way for people to live, we are also clear about our responsibilities to do things in the right way.  “

I had a good outcome with urgent phone calls to resolve my issues from customer relations of another U.K. plc following unsatisfactory service and they mobilised their resources to resolve my complaint to everyone’s satisfaction.

AskAsk

that may be the only easily accesible area for the man hole. doesn't help you having an ugly looking thing right in front of your door though.

aimeecooperx

Unicorn_cottage said:

Pics? Would never ever trust a developer. The shocking things I have seen!

So the yellow dot that I have drawn is where they have put it, but the orange dot to the right hand side that is inside the long rectangle is where it should be and that area is the bark in front of the house. 

aimeecooperx

frogglet said:

Surely manholes are put where there are joins and bends in pipes. They can't always be hidden.
Did they leave an open drain with no lid outside your front door?

Well I don’t know much about them but you’d think so. I get they can’t always be hidden but from what we can see on our plans that we signed is they’ve actually put the access to what should be the manhole in the wrong place. 

So the yellow dot is where the manhole cover is, or inspection chamber as they’re calling it, but the orange dot slightly to the right of it that’s inside the rectangle is where it should be. That are is the bark/flower bed. So if it was put there like it was meant to, it could be covered. Everyone else’s in the street is somewhere where it can be hidden, ie grass, bark or tarmac, which we wouldn’t mind as it’s not at the front door and it’s less visible. 

They didn’t leave a whole they simply paved over it with concrete slabs, which is why they said they couldn’t find it when they came the first time, because they’d covered it up.

frogglet

Now you know where it is , make a note and put a flag back over it.  You will still be able to access it to rod it in the future.

aimeecooperx

HobgoblinBT said:

Contact their press office. Draw their attention to this thread and quote their mission statement from their website and set out how their actions have not lived up to it.  Tell them that you would appreciate them investigating the matter and resolving the issue for you.  If not, post your complaint on their social media sites and copy in their CEO.   

From their website “We live in challenging times. While we are proud of our achievements and focused on our purpose of creating a better way for people to live, we are also clear about our responsibilities to do things in the right way.  “

I had a good outcome with urgent phone calls to resolve my issues from customer relations of another U.K. plc following unsatisfactory service and they mobilised their resources to resolve my complaint to everyone’s satisfaction.

We certainly will do that, thank you. That’s really helpful! I never thought of looking on their website for their mission statement. Well do all that tonight. Fingers crossed!

Slithery

aimeecooperx said:

We requested that it is either moved to somewhere like the tarmac, grass or bark like every other house so it can be hidden, or lowered and covered.

You can't just put a manhole wherever you want to, it has to go in the correct access position for the preexisting drains.