I have a leak in my leasehold flat in a small council 4 storey block of flats – 8 flats in total. In the corner of the bathroom is a cupboard where the soil pipe runs through each of the 4 floors on my side of the building. Within this cupboard there is a T junction taking the bath and kitchen waste into the soil pipe and this is where the leak is. The kitchen waste enters this cupboard in plastic and then is connected to the T junction by a small length of original copper pipe. This is how these types of connections were organised when the block was built about 70 years ago. The inside of the cupboard is dinghy and dirty and difficult to see the pipework inside.
We had landlord insurance and they sent their emergency plumber out and he spent about one/two minutes in the flat examining the problem. He left after declaring that the pipework was communal (not covered by the insurance) and the landlord’s (local council) responsibility. He clearly did not want to do this very messy job.
We called the council emergency plumbing team out twice and as we expected they quite clearly said that the soil pipe was communal, but the attached pipework was not. Despite being told this the Landlord Insurance stuck with the diagnosis of their plumber. This went on for 3 days and we asked for a different plumber. They said they were trying to source on. Eventually the original plumbing company agreed to send out a more senior plumber.
We agreed to meet him at the property, but he dodged us and came 3 hours earlier when there was only the tenant there. We phoned him and discussed the problem over the phone. He clearly did not want to do the job and said it was a massive repair job involving removing the bath and dismantling part of the kitchen to remove all the pipework and would be very expensive. During this phone call he asked us where the boiler was, and we said in the kitchen. He immediately diagnosed the problem as faulty installation of the boiler and said it should have had an acidic neutraliser fitted. I assume this was because of the copper pipe leading to the T connection. He had not looked at the boiler. He said this faulty installation had caused the leak. He reported this to the landlord insurance, and they refused the claim.
I contacted an experienced drainage company that supplies services to all the main South London councils. They inspected the leak and confirmed it was a leak at the T connector. They confirmed it was a messy job and would require the bath to be taken out first, but they are willing to do it in the next few days. They will also replace the copper pipe with plastic.
The plumber who installed the boiler is a highly respected installer and I do not accept that he is in any way to blame. He connected the boiler overflow into the plastic kitchen drain system. I cannot see how he could have been expected to know that a small copper pipe had been used in the soil pipe connection in the bathroom and therefore of the need to fit an acidic neutraliser. He fitted the boiler in 2015 and it replaced a condensing boiler which had the same overflow arrangement for many years. I do not accept the criticism about the boiler installation. It is clearly nonsense just to avoid doing a messy and unpleasant job.
My question to all you specialists is for some advice to contest the Landlord Insurance refusal of the claim and claim reimbursement.
Your advice and comments would always be much appreciated.
Best wishes
PaddyW
We had landlord insurance and they sent their emergency plumber out and he spent about one/two minutes in the flat examining the problem. He left after declaring that the pipework was communal (not covered by the insurance) and the landlord’s (local council) responsibility. He clearly did not want to do this very messy job.
We called the council emergency plumbing team out twice and as we expected they quite clearly said that the soil pipe was communal, but the attached pipework was not. Despite being told this the Landlord Insurance stuck with the diagnosis of their plumber. This went on for 3 days and we asked for a different plumber. They said they were trying to source on. Eventually the original plumbing company agreed to send out a more senior plumber.
We agreed to meet him at the property, but he dodged us and came 3 hours earlier when there was only the tenant there. We phoned him and discussed the problem over the phone. He clearly did not want to do the job and said it was a massive repair job involving removing the bath and dismantling part of the kitchen to remove all the pipework and would be very expensive. During this phone call he asked us where the boiler was, and we said in the kitchen. He immediately diagnosed the problem as faulty installation of the boiler and said it should have had an acidic neutraliser fitted. I assume this was because of the copper pipe leading to the T connection. He had not looked at the boiler. He said this faulty installation had caused the leak. He reported this to the landlord insurance, and they refused the claim.
I contacted an experienced drainage company that supplies services to all the main South London councils. They inspected the leak and confirmed it was a leak at the T connector. They confirmed it was a messy job and would require the bath to be taken out first, but they are willing to do it in the next few days. They will also replace the copper pipe with plastic.
The plumber who installed the boiler is a highly respected installer and I do not accept that he is in any way to blame. He connected the boiler overflow into the plastic kitchen drain system. I cannot see how he could have been expected to know that a small copper pipe had been used in the soil pipe connection in the bathroom and therefore of the need to fit an acidic neutraliser. He fitted the boiler in 2015 and it replaced a condensing boiler which had the same overflow arrangement for many years. I do not accept the criticism about the boiler installation. It is clearly nonsense just to avoid doing a messy and unpleasant job.
My question to all you specialists is for some advice to contest the Landlord Insurance refusal of the claim and claim reimbursement.
Your advice and comments would always be much appreciated.
Best wishes
PaddyW
