If you recall, a couple of weeks ago we broke through a yellow gas pipe.
The gas pipe fed a neighbour's house, and its presence was unknown to us, as it travelled a significant distance under my driveway, which is a very odd thing as the neighbour's house has its own driveway. The pipe eventually emerged under a flowerbed and well over ground, and was damaged during removal of flowerbed.
What happened historically is they saved costs by running the neighbour's gas pipe under my land, for 30 meters or so, before veering off and crossing over into his house. Unnecessary, since they should have channelled through his own driveway which runs in parallel.
SGN were called out and eventually installed a completely new gas pipe for my neighbour, under his own driveway, and deactivated the one under my drive. Which is the way it should have been done from day one.
SGN then sent me a bill for £1151.51. Attached to the bill are FAQs stating that the fault is whoever's broke the pipe, even if under tree roots, over the ground, encased in concrete etc. In other words SGN are not to blame at all regardless of the orientation, position or general location of the pipe, even if it were over ground it seems : "never assume depths" says on the FAQ,
My argument is : this is SGN's fault for routing unrelated gas pipes under my land, of which neither they, or I had knowledge of.
Any help to avoid paying this bill would be appreciated. I do have insurance, and am not sure they cover such claims, but this in my opinion is SGN (or their contractors) cutting corners.
The gas pipe fed a neighbour's house, and its presence was unknown to us, as it travelled a significant distance under my driveway, which is a very odd thing as the neighbour's house has its own driveway. The pipe eventually emerged under a flowerbed and well over ground, and was damaged during removal of flowerbed.
What happened historically is they saved costs by running the neighbour's gas pipe under my land, for 30 meters or so, before veering off and crossing over into his house. Unnecessary, since they should have channelled through his own driveway which runs in parallel.
SGN were called out and eventually installed a completely new gas pipe for my neighbour, under his own driveway, and deactivated the one under my drive. Which is the way it should have been done from day one.
SGN then sent me a bill for £1151.51. Attached to the bill are FAQs stating that the fault is whoever's broke the pipe, even if under tree roots, over the ground, encased in concrete etc. In other words SGN are not to blame at all regardless of the orientation, position or general location of the pipe, even if it were over ground it seems : "never assume depths" says on the FAQ,
My argument is : this is SGN's fault for routing unrelated gas pipes under my land, of which neither they, or I had knowledge of.
Any help to avoid paying this bill would be appreciated. I do have insurance, and am not sure they cover such claims, but this in my opinion is SGN (or their contractors) cutting corners.
