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National Entity poor work led to rat infestation
Shoddy workmanship by a large entity left a hole in my drive from which rats escaped. I've had them in my house, nibbling a hole in my fridge, up my neighbour's loo while he's sitting on it, under my decking making it unsafe. Said entity sent contractors to deal with it who told me there was an open sewer under the hole, swooned and gagged and refused to deal with it. I nearly died of fright. The following week another team came out & said it wasn't an open sewer. Eventually this got fixed, and I was told by 2 separate workers that their poor work had caused the issue. I wrote an LBA to the Entity and had loss adjusters around. They have now written to me and said "Following our review of the evidence available to us, it has been concluded that the evidence you have submitted to date does not provide sufficient/adequate support to confirm (on balance) that the rat issue highlighted (and subsequent damage) was caused as the direct result of previous work undertaken by our client or those instructed by them.
You are therefore placed to “strict proof” to provide sufficient evidence in support of your allegations."
I've written back asking what strict proof is, and for copies of the statements of the workers they have interviewed (presumably) because two people independently admitted it was their error (and if it weren't their error why would they have fixed it?). I am in bits here; the infestation has been so stressful I lost my job as I lost my head. I can't afford a new fridge nor new decking. I am exhausted. Where do I go from hereon please?
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Have you spoken to your home insurance provider? As you've had damage to your property and contents, it would seem the obvious place to start.
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If you're suggesting that rats were living underground and that a hole in your drive allowed them to escape (and you assert that there wouldn't have been any other way for them to get out) then I'm not surprised that you're being asked for evidence of that.
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Ah. Now I can see the problem. As pointed out on that thread, there's a good chance the work and the rat problem aren't related. The rats were always there.
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The evidence is that the workmen came out, investigated and confirmed this was the issue. The rats may well have been there but they couldn't escape the sewer pipe until the workers came and dug a massive hole, then didn't fill it in properly which enabled the rats to escape the pipe. This hadn't been put in properly in the first place apparently (years ago long before I moved in) but because the rats couldn't go anywhere, there was absolutely no issue. Until the workmen came along, dug a hole and didn't fill it in. I don't understand what more evidence I can give when the company themselves admitted that they hadn't done a good enough job.
The last lot of workmen (who actually did the job properly rather than claiming it was an environmental hazard) said it hadn't been backed in sufficiently (or whatever the phrase is) and that it is their (company's) duty to make good any issues they come across.
I have had some legal advice via home insurance but can't afford to make a claim, pay the excess and have my premium rocket especially when it is not my fault.
ETA - I forgot I had posted a whie back - not sure if I can merge the two threads sorry.
ETA 2 - they have completely ignored the fact I repeatedly had to chase them to finish the job leaving massive holes right outside my front door and telling me that I had an open sewer in front of my house which has been ridiculously stressful.
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If you have legal protection it shouldn't cost you anything to go after National Grid as they should pay .
What did they say when you called them?
If you want this sorted then you will have to make a claim on your insurance but if you can't afford the excess then you will have to let it go.
Like people have mentioned rats live in the sewers and there is nothing that can be done about getting rid of every single one of them.
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Oh sorry I thought you meant putting fridge, decking, etc. through my insurance. The legal helpline? They were - er - not particularly helpful TBH. They said to approach NG in the first instance. If I'm frank the guy admitted he didn't really know much about advising on this situation… I will try and call them again I guess but my premium will go through the roof and I'll have to pay the excess for something which was not my fault.
As I said on the last thread I fully accept rats are around. I don't expect there not to be - this is life, and they have a right to live here too. What I don't accept is shoddy workmanship making it possible for them to escape from a pipe which was previously blocked and thus tunnel under my decking setting up a rat metropolis in my garden.
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If your insurer is successful in recovering the costs of the damage from the NG, there shouldn't be any excess to pay.
I see the point about insurance made a lot on here, but you pay hundreds of pounds for home and contents insurance, amounting to many thousands over several years. Seems daft to not make a claim when you need to. Why are you paying for insurance, otherwise?
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Well - that's a good point, to be fair! I hadn't thought of it like that before.
My head is all over the place so I'm not making a whole lot of sense to anyone, let alone myself. I will go to sleep and think on that again tomorrow. It needs sorting, so perhaps I do go through my insurance and then they have to do all the chasing and stress. I'll call them tomorrow and get some advice. Thank you for that - that's a really, really helpful post.
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The evidence is that the workmen came out, investigated and confirmed this was the issue.
[…]
I don't understand what more evidence I can give when the company themselves admitted that they hadn't done a good enough job.
Have these confirmations and admissions been in writing yet?
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