Retirement Village in Breach of Repairs Contract?

Exasperted001

Hi

My Mum lives in a Retirement Village, where she shares ownership of a bungalow.

In December she had a burst pipe behind the kitchen units. She has a RepairsPlus contract for which she pays £43.99/month. An engineer came out & repaired 2 sections of copper pipe, which were badly corroded.

It transpired that whoever had installed the boiler when the unit was built had used Copper pipe in the Condensate line! This is an absolute NO, which any Qualified tradesman should know, as the Condensate is basically Sulphuric Acid & will corrode Copper! It was clear to see that the Condensate line had corroded through, which then dripped onto the Mains Water Inlet (probably for years) until that corroded & sprung a leak. It was quite a mess. Units soaked & Black Moss on the floor & walls behind the units.

The engineer had to cut a large section of unit to access the repair. Close inspection revealed another small leak where a second section of Copper had been used further along the Condensate line.

As the smaller leak was merely a drip, it was agreed that rather than rip out the sink unit & leave my Mum without a kitchen, we would manage it until they could measure up, order replacement units & do the job in one hit.

Unfortunately, that’s when Head Office staff got involved. I’ve been banging my head against a wall dealing with idiots. No one in the organisation seems to know who anyone else is or what their roles are.

The conclusion of Stage 1 complaint (despite my repeated efforts to provide facts), we had to “go to our own Home Insurance” oh & a £100 good will gesture..

Stage 2 complaint admitted that the 1st “Resolution Officer” hadn’t been aware that we had this comprehensive RepairsPlus policy and would receive training. And organised for an Inspector to visit the very next day to evaluate the damage. Finally progress! Hurray!!

So inspector comes & identifies 4 units either physically or water damaged, along with doors with peeling vinyl. He ordered 4 units from the Howdens catalog right in front of me.

He said we have a problem. The supplier no longer does that Door Profile or the colour of the Base units…. Well that’s a dilemma.

So I immediately emailed the “Senior Resolution Officer” who is handling my Stage 2 complaint & informed him of this issue.

Today I received an email saying they will replace one 600mm base unit and use all the existing doors!

The unit isn’t even the one that has been hacked to pieces & the base unit will be Light Oak, with the rest in Beech.

The RepairsPlus contract states very clearly that any damage as a result of their fault or by their repairs is covered. It has a limit of £5’000.

But I’m dealing with imbeciles!!!

Sorry for the long post. Any advice please?

Exasperted001

I will post some pics in the morning & a copy of the contract.

Exasperted001

Sorry for the long post above.

My Mum lives in a Retirement Vilage, She owns 75% of her Bungalow, the Company owns the rest.

She pays £43.93/month for a RepairsPlus Contract (Attached).

She had a flood from behind the Kitchen units. It was a burst Water mains. On closer inspection it was clear that the burst was caused by 2 Leaks from 2 sections of Copper Pipe in the Boiler Condensate line, which had corroded & subsequently dripped onto the Water Main & corroded it.

It is not in dispute that this is the fault of the company, as Copper should never be in a Condensate line. It's Incompetence/Negligence.

The issue is that the Company are doing all they can to avoid their responsibility to Replace Damaged units.

1 RepairsPlusContract .jpg

4 Condensate Copper.jpeg

Exasperted001

That's the result of the 1st Repair to the burst water main.

The water main is the pipe furthest Left. It runs beneath the Boiler Condensate Pipe (Grey).

The white section is where one of the sections of Copper had corroded & dripped onto the Copper Water main beneath it.

As you can see the Kitchen Cabinet had to damaged to do the repair. Also the whole area behind the units is covered in Black Mould, so the kitchen has to come out to properly replace the Condensate pipe & treat the Mould.