Water damage to my home caused by a heating engineer's work

K_G

Hi all,

Please move if in wrong place.

A plumber has discovered I've had a slow water leak for a month or so (and fixed it), caused by a heating engineer who installed a new boiler in my home, which I own with a mortgage. It turns out the heating engineer must have pulled apart a hidden pipe between the sink and toilet at the join, when connecting a condensate pipe to it in a visible place. It was wrenched clean apart (a plastic pipe). I have photos. The heating engineer then didn't detect this on follow-up visits when I said there appeared to be a little bit of water seeping from somewhere besides other issues which he dealt with (most of the leak was hidden, slowish and intermittent, but he didn't investigate very thoroughly at all like looking at any hidden areas). He advised me to leave it a while and see if it dried up as it may be residual from a small leak he fixed, which I did (and I went away for Christmas for a few days, which he advised me was fine to go ahead and do).

On my return 2 days ago, there is now quite extensive damage to my floors and floor coverings and bathroom cabinets, which is preventing various doors in the house opening and closing properly, and everything will need replacing because it has all warped, swollen, gone mouldy and smells damp. It's a total nightmare to be honest. I only discovered the less obvious aspects of the damage when the plumber investigated yesterday.

I've emailed the company yesterday who sold me my new boiler and sent the gas safe registered heating engineer to install it as part of a fixed price, explaining and saying I believe they are liable for making good all the damage caused. No reply yet. Their phone lines appear to be closed for Christmas and it doesn't say when they reopen. As far as I could tell they are a 'proper' national, reputable company though with a good Trustpilot rating. I obviously have absolutely zero faith left in the heating engineer himself by now, although he seemed fine at the time and is gas safe registered (I've checked). I don't know what his response would be, but it would require different tradesmen to repair and replace the flooring and so on anyway, surely, not a heating engineer? I don't want him to do the work personality as it's not his profession, and he seems to be out of his depth in what he's qualified in let alone anything else. I'd rather never see him again if I can help it!

Any advice about the whole situation is welcome, as I've never had to deal with anything like this before and it's all very stressful. My immediate question though is, should I inform my home insurers? I have buildings and contents (not a cheap policy) and legal cover with it as it only cost a little extra. I've never made any sort of insurance claim before, and always deal with any small things out of pocket and keep things maintained. I imagine they would see the damage as this company/ heating engineer's responsibility to put right though, not theirs, given the circumstances? I suppose the legal cover might be relevant, but I hope the company would respond to me under consumer law and their or the engineer's liability insurance without me needing to involve a lawyer? If I needed that sort of thing I'd rather use Citizens Advice or something.

There is an excess on my policy of £500 for any escape of water claim, besides any increase in premiums which are already high. Having to buy an expensive new boiler when my old one broke was bad enough (I had to ask family for help), without all this damage which extends right into my open plan kitchen/ sitting room floor from the downstairs boiler cupboard and bathroom. I can afford very little more in the way of out of pocket expenses. Currently everything is damp, I can't get out of my back door, and I have to walk over an unsafe, slippery 'peak' of warped, wet floorboards to get into my only bathroom/ toilet.

For clarity, the plumber who discovered and fixed the leak yesterday came out under a small plumbing and drains policy I have with British Gas, who I called out thinking I must have a new, unrelated issue with a pipe or plumbing to the toilet or something, since the heating engineer had previously assured me there were absolutely no outstanding issues relating to his installation of the boiler, and I couldn't see any leak anywhere near the boiler itself. It was covered under their £30 call out charge and I will ask them for a written report in a day or two, to keep with my photos. To me, things seemed ok when I went away for a few days, but when I got back the floorboards had noticeably lifted which worried me 

I can provide further info if that helps.

Many thanks to anyone who knows anything about this.

[Deleted User]

The boiler guy should have insurance you can claim off for his poor work. No excess.

K_G

Thanks rigolith. I imagine I'd have to go via the company that sells the boilers and arranged the installation first though? I know that the engineer is gas safe registered, would there be any point in contacting the gas safe register people? I don't know if they provide insurance to engineers on their register or are otherwise accountable for their work if it's not a gas safety issue specifically? It's all so confusing.

TELLIT01

Until you have spoken to the company who installed the boiler there is no point in contacting anybody else.  They may well make good the work and pay for repairs to the damage caused.  Don't assume they won't do anything.  They will probably reopen on Tuesday 4th Jan.

Proving the installation engineer was at fault may not be straight forward.  If a pipe simply pulled apart it could be argued that it wasn't properly installed in the first place.  You say the damaged pipe was hidden so the installation engineer may well not have been aware of any problem.  When he came back he would have been looking for issues with the work he did.

mattyprice4004

Speak to the company first - a lot of companies closed on the 23rd and don’t reopen until the 4th so don’t panic yet. 

They should sort this with their own insurance.

K_G

Hi all

Can anyone give me any further advice? The company (iheat) are now refusing to accept any liability or do anything, using the flimsiest of reasoning. I feel despairing and so let down. The damage is awful to live with every day and I can't afford to fix it myself. They are suggesting I take it to a dispute resolution service they use, but I'm not convinced about that.

I can provide further details, but I don't know if it's wise to quote on here from the emails between us about this?

Many thanks.

csgohan4

did you pay the tradesman using a credit card? you could consider section 75 if you did , at least claim back the cost of the alleged shoddy work for the boiler

Weighty1

One of the prime uses of legal expense cover is to enable you to claim against a 3rd party for contracts carried out poorly, as is the case in this instance.  Obviously, to utilise this service you'd then likely suffer increased premiums, even if a claim on your insurance isn't made but from what you've said it sounds like a claim may amount to several thousand pounds to it could well be worth going down this avenue.

K_G

Thanks both. Yes, I am considering using my legal expenses cover soon if my last email to them disputing what they've said doesn't get me anywhere. I have said to iheat that if they don't think again they can expect a lawsuit, negative publicity (they pride themselves on their good Trustpilot rating) and for me to request a chargeback from my bank for the money I paid them. It wasn't a credit card, but I once got my bank to do a chargeback for other faulty goods. 

Any more advice is very welcome, as this is all so upsetting. Does anyone know anything about using the 'independent' arbitration/ dispute resolution service that iheat contract with and are trying to steer me towards? I don't like the bit in the blurb about committing to that as the sole way of sorting things out. Sounds to me like I might get a worse resolution that way.

Anthony147

K_G said:

Hi all

Can anyone give me any further advice? The company (iheat) are now refusing to accept any liability or do anything, using the flimsiest of reasoning. I feel despairing and so let down. The damage is awful to live with every day and I can't afford to fix it myself. They are suggesting I take it to a dispute resolution service they use, but I'm not convinced about that.

I can provide further details, but I don't know if it's wise to quote on here from the emails between us about this?

Many thanks.

IANAL

Seems to me they are prepared to entertain and deal with it but have issues over quorum (the amount) and time away causing greater damage. 

For the immediate - Either get the minimus done with pics / receipts and be able to explain why that’s reasonable in the interim or get your insurance involved and the legal cover to guide you
Also prepare to show your actions were reasonable, you minimised the expense and extent of the leak and have a good idea of rectifications costs

Be aware they are not bound be needing to be speedy and you may need to provide impetus via a claim.

[Deleted User]

If you do use legal cover and your premium goes up, your can claim for that off them too. Any and all costs that could not have reasonably been avoided by you can be claimed for.