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While in the course of replacing our bathroom, the fitters have disturbed a waste pipe which they tell me was not properly installed, incorrect pipe, sealed with silicon...
We discovered the problem when they tested and it soaked the carpet and damaged the skirting boards of the room below.
Do I suck the cost of getting everything cleaned/replaced?
Isn’t that why they have liability insurance?
depends if they were negligent or not.
if the pipe was - undetectably to them - the wrong sort (not properly sealed or whatever), and a normal bathroom fitter would do the same thing (causing the same leak), then I think its on your household insurance. if they can see that there's an old pipe with dodgy fittings, thought 'wonder if this will leak' and threw a bucket of water down it, I think its on them
If it was your old
Pipe work that had been bodged in the past, that they couldn’t see and connected on to, I’d say suck up the cost or claim on your own house insurance. If they’d installed back to the stack and it leaked, then it’s their/their liability insurance problem.
For a carpet clean and a bit of skirting they won’t claim anyway as if anything like mine, the excess on the policy would far outweigh the cost of the replacement work.
I always connect back as far as possible in new pipework when I fit bathrooms for this very reason.
While in the course of replacing our bathroom, the fitters have disturbed a waste pipe which they tell me was not properly installed, incorrect pipe, sealed with silicon…
While it may not have been installed properly, it wasn't leaking before was it? So they've caused the damage. Having said that, had it been properly installed, it's possible they wouldn't have caused the leak when they disturbed it. It's probably a knock-for-knock case. How about you offer to cover the material cost of whatever needs fixing, and they offer the labour to fix it?
It's worth noting that liability insurance often doesn't cover stuff like this, which is down to someone not competently doing the job. And they may not even have liability insurance anyway - it's not a legal requirement (although I think sometimes it should be). I think that's more an indemnity insurance thing. (I could be wrong.)
At about 3 minutes in
The householders insurance take precedence.
Insurance companies have decided amongst themselves how these situation are resolved.
I sucked it up, but thank you all.
I sucked it up
Urgh, I hope you have brushed your teeth.