Responsibility for a blocked drain?

[sjstilwell]

Background:

Moving toilet from back of the house to 1st floor.
There was already a bathroom on the 1st floor but only bath and sink.
There was a pipe for the bath waste and according to my builder it was the correct size (4" minimum i think) to act as a soil pipe too.

Plan was to attach the toilet waste pipe to the existing pipe and all would be okay. I checked with the local water company who said that was okay and my builder confirmed that there was no need for building regs.

He went ahead and fitted it and to test if it worked he flushed the toilet and all seemed fine.

4 months later pipe is completely blocked full of toilet waste and water starts coming out of toilet, bath etc (i think the tenant inexplicably left the tap on the bath with no plug) and it floods the bathroom and the ceiling below collapses.

When the emergency drainage company come out to check they find that the drain that the toilet waste was attached to had collapsed and appeared to have been that way for some time. It was repaired, drain and pipes cleared and all works fine now.

My builder says it is my bad luck that there was a collapsed drain there but i am saying that he has to take some, if not all, of the responsibility for this because he should have checked the drain when he connected the toilet waste to it.

Who is correct??

any help would be much appreciated and sorry for the long winded explanation!!!

 

[wotan]

I would think that unless you could prove the drain had collasped prior to the work being carried out, you would find it extremely difficult to claim against the builder.
4 month is quite a long time, it would not take that long for the problem to manifest itself, had the drain been collasped when the builder did the work.

Wotan

 

[sjstilwell]

thanks for coming back so quickly!

strangely he wasn't disputing that it was already collapsed, he was just saying that it was unreasonable for me to expect him to test it without specifically asking him to.

 

[r896neo]

I think it is pretty unreasonable to think that the builder is responsible.

A partially collasped drain can seem fine for sink and bath waste but when you put loo-roll and solids down it, they catch and it gradually restricts the flow until it blocks.

The only possible way he could have known would be to get a camera survey done. As you rightly said it was being used and seemed fine so why would you waste your money on doing that! If every tradesman doing any kind of plumbing or drainage alterations starting adding a 300quid charge for a survey just to be on the safe side 99.9 percent of customers would refuse it.

Your drains are your responsibility.

 

[r896neo]

just re-read that post and it seems very harsh, sorry about that didn't mean it to be so confrontational.

 

[sjstilwell]

Don't worry about it, am interested to hear what people think!

still feel that there has to some responsibility on his part but wonder if there is anyone out there who agrees with me?!

 

[big-all]

i think what your aiming at is he may have disturbed/ broken somthing whilst carrying out the work!!!

at 4 months i think you have to conclude he hasnt deliberatly left it in a "unsatisfatory" condition

it is possible his actions caused say a crack to propigate and fail some months later but its also possible that its coincidence
without actual proof [which you havent got] the best you can hope for it token help as a goodwill gesture

 

[sjstilwell]

seems like it is going to be an expensive lesson learnt for me but will definitely get him to at least stick a rod down it to check if i ever find myself in this situation again!

Thanks all

sjstilwell

 

[Nige F]

A rod will tell you nothing...only a cctv will . Harden yourself to be like the other 99% of private landlords ...Get a copy of the "Rackmann guide to Lettings" Sit back and enjoy the free market economy

 

[sjstilwell]

ahh rachman, i was hoping to emulate Van Hoogstraten!!

 

[Nige F]

I live in the same county as him ...so I think best to respect his views

 

[sjstilwell]

probably wise!