Advice - Plumber charging for misdiagnosed leaks

warwick2001

Difficult this one, as it all depends on timing. 

If you opened the door to the plumber (or plumbers employee) on their first visit and said something like "Hi there, thanks for coming, I've been an idiot and drilled into a pipe. Please find the hole and repair it....." then I would argue if the plumber didn't find the hole, obviously didn't repair the hole, and then repeated this 3 times with 3 separate visits, I'd be a bit upset about paying for these call-outs.

However, if the hole was only mentioned on the visit it was found and repaired, then I'm not sure what you can do. If the plumber had no idea what the fault was, then they would check the joints/fittings etc, as these are the usual culprits. A hole would be highly unusual to just develop. And if you didn't mention you'd been drilling around the area, why would they suspect it?

I think a fully competent plumber would (and possibly should) have found the hole and fixed it on their first visit, but if it was hidden under flooring and couldn't be seen, then would you have been happy to have the floor ripped up to diagnose the fault (without you mentioning you'd been drilling in the vicinity)? 

But, to be fair, £240 doesn't seem ridiculous in this day and age