Gents
Usually post on CC but given nature of my current problem thought I'd share my woes with a wider audience!
Now, I live next to a field and when the farmer was ploughing it he cut through my mains water supply. He has cobbled together a temporary MDPE repair with the mains pipe now sort of "surface mounted". Very rich landowner then (farmer rents the field) tells me that the mains pipe is a "private supply" and whilst it was a "regrettable accident" the permanent repair of the pipe is my responsibility.
The water supplier stop tap is located circa 150 yards away from my house (incidentally there is no stop tap at the boundary of my house with the supply pipe teeing off the mains...I've already had the water company diviner over to prove this!)
I have received a letter from a Loss Adjuster (representing the farmer's insurance company) stating:-
"It is our view that the pipe was shallow and its position was clearly unknown to our Principal's Insured (farmer). When the pipe was laid we doubt that any regulatory enforcement would have applied to the required cover at which it was laid and inevitably the topology of the land will have altered." The loss adjuster uses lots of suppositions/assumptions and uses words such as "doubt", "we believe" "likely" "appears" "indicative" etc without establishing any facts.
They go on to say that basically that it was not the farmers fault, he had no knowledge of the pipe and as it is a private supply serving my house then it is my responsibility to have it permanently repaired and "re-routed" (the pipe is buried in the farmers field and they are saying that it should be relaid in the lane next to my house).
Having spoken with my neighbours (who share this supply) this private supply pipe was laid originally by the landowner for cattle troughs and to serve the house in which I live (it is an old farm labourers cottage). So, rich landowner knows this (farm has been in family for generations) and is pretending that he doesn't know anything about this. It is clear that the pipe was laid originally by the farmer and over the passage of time the houses in my lane have passed into the private sector.
Now, I am currently looking into my legal position as I am rightly concerned that re-routing of this pipework is gonna cost a huge amount of money. Morally (and I know that this counts for the square root of jack sh*t) the farmer has caused the damage and is now spinning the ball out to the wings a bit sharpish and is trying to cover his jacksey with the loss adjuster's letter and I think that given the history of the pipe the landowner should effect its permanent repair.
Sorry for the length of this post (I am sure that some will have given up the will to live before reaching the end!) but any views/similar experiences would be welcomed....I feel like the poor serf being trampled on by the big bad local squire)........
Usually post on CC but given nature of my current problem thought I'd share my woes with a wider audience!
Now, I live next to a field and when the farmer was ploughing it he cut through my mains water supply. He has cobbled together a temporary MDPE repair with the mains pipe now sort of "surface mounted". Very rich landowner then (farmer rents the field) tells me that the mains pipe is a "private supply" and whilst it was a "regrettable accident" the permanent repair of the pipe is my responsibility.
The water supplier stop tap is located circa 150 yards away from my house (incidentally there is no stop tap at the boundary of my house with the supply pipe teeing off the mains...I've already had the water company diviner over to prove this!)
I have received a letter from a Loss Adjuster (representing the farmer's insurance company) stating:-
"It is our view that the pipe was shallow and its position was clearly unknown to our Principal's Insured (farmer). When the pipe was laid we doubt that any regulatory enforcement would have applied to the required cover at which it was laid and inevitably the topology of the land will have altered." The loss adjuster uses lots of suppositions/assumptions and uses words such as "doubt", "we believe" "likely" "appears" "indicative" etc without establishing any facts.
They go on to say that basically that it was not the farmers fault, he had no knowledge of the pipe and as it is a private supply serving my house then it is my responsibility to have it permanently repaired and "re-routed" (the pipe is buried in the farmers field and they are saying that it should be relaid in the lane next to my house).
Having spoken with my neighbours (who share this supply) this private supply pipe was laid originally by the landowner for cattle troughs and to serve the house in which I live (it is an old farm labourers cottage). So, rich landowner knows this (farm has been in family for generations) and is pretending that he doesn't know anything about this. It is clear that the pipe was laid originally by the farmer and over the passage of time the houses in my lane have passed into the private sector.
Now, I am currently looking into my legal position as I am rightly concerned that re-routing of this pipework is gonna cost a huge amount of money. Morally (and I know that this counts for the square root of jack sh*t) the farmer has caused the damage and is now spinning the ball out to the wings a bit sharpish and is trying to cover his jacksey with the loss adjuster's letter and I think that given the history of the pipe the landowner should effect its permanent repair.
Sorry for the length of this post (I am sure that some will have given up the will to live before reaching the end!) but any views/similar experiences would be welcomed....I feel like the poor serf being trampled on by the big bad local squire)........
