Emergency Plumbers fix has failed

nbn

Hello,

So, while drilling a hole in the wall to hang a picture I
hit a cold water pipe (classic) which I really didnt expect to be there.

Typically my phone reception was down all day so I got a message to partner who was at work to call a plumber.

She called the first emergency plumber company she saw after internet search. They sent a guy around and we ended up with a bill for over £700 for him cutting out a length of pipe with the hole and soldering in new pipe with joins.

I've come to accept this outlandish bill although given enough time i could have resolved it myself.

But 4 months on a small wet patch appeared on the wall by the join. I've dug out the expanding foam and filler and sure enough a join in the pipe has a tiny very slow leak.

Now my question is; can I claim back the money for this repair as I wish to get a plumber in to reroute the hot and cold feeds to a more direct route which is not much work, and this would make the pipe in the wall redundant.

Or do I legally have to let the emergy plumbing company rectify the leak. BTW we didnt go through the insurance.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Neil

eskbanker

nbn said:

Now my question is; can I claim back the money for this repair as I wish to get a plumber in to reroute the hot and cold feeds to a more direct route which is not much work, and this would make the pipe in the wall redundant.

Or do I legally have to let the emergy plumbing company rectify the leak.

You can't simply "claim back" the cost of the repair - you'd need to report the issue to the emergency plumber and take it from there.  They can probably be held liable for repairing the pipe and any damage costs directly resulting from the job failing, but they're unlikely to commit to a full refund and I doubt you'd be able to make a case for that.

Aylesbury_Duck

nbn said:

Hello,

So, while drilling a hole in the wall to hang a picture I
hit a cold water pipe (classic) which I really didnt expect to be there.

Typically my phone reception was down all day so I got a message to partner who was at work to call a plumber.

She called the first emergency plumber company she saw after internet search. They sent a guy around and we ended up with a bill for over £700 for him cutting out a length of pipe with the hole and soldering in new pipe with joins.

I've come to accept this outlandish bill although given enough time i could have resolved it myself.

But 4 months on a small wet patch appeared on the wall by the join. I've dug out the expanding foam and filler and sure enough a join in the pipe has a tiny very slow leak.

Now my question is; can I claim back the money for this repair as I wish to get a plumber in to reroute the hot and cold feeds to a more direct route which is not much work, and this would make the pipe in the wall redundant.

Or do I legally have to let the emergy plumbing company rectify the leak. BTW we didnt go through the insurance.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Neil

I think you have to give them the chance to fix the leak before claiming back the repair cost. 

Are they an "emergency plumbing company" or are they a plumbing company that does emergency callouts? If they're a regular plumbing company, surely the pragmatic thing to do here is to call them, explain the problem, and negotiate a reduction on the rerouting you want doing, in recognition of their faulty workmanship?   It's either that or they come out and fix the problem for nothing, and you pay someone else to reroute the pipework.

DullGreyGuy

You cannot claim back the whole cost of the emergency work. Being 4 months later you should give them a chance to rectify the error or at worst the cost of someone else rectifying the error on a non-emergency basis based on the level of the problem. 

Assuming you haven't lost faith in the company then it may be better to use it as a negotiation point on them doing the wider work you want instead. 

Oasyser

Sounds frustrating, especially when you’ve already paid for a fix that didn’t last. I had a similar issue before, and getting a resolution was a hassle. Have you tried pressing them for a proper repair under any guarantee they offer? Some companies avoid responsibility, but standing firm helps.

IvanOpinion

If your intention is to reroute the pipes then why worry about this pipe since it will be redundant?
Or are you hoping you might be able to claim back and effectively get the rerouting job done free?

user1977

IvanOpinion said:

If your intention is to reroute the pipes then why worry about this pipe since it will be redundant?
Or are you hoping you might be able to claim back and effectively get the rerouting job done free?

This is a thread from May last year resurrected for some reason by @oasyser so I hope the pipe is now fixed...