To be utterly fucked off with this incompetence?

[VelvetSpoon]

Previous threadhere for background.

In brief, I have a water leak. So big that it cascades down what's left of my driveway (which has had 4 big holes dug in it), over the pavement and runs like a stream down the road. Apart from the holes, it's been like this for about 5 months.

I was told recently by Thames Water that if I dug a hole in my kitchen floor they would repair the leak. It's a solid concrete floor so not just lifting floor boards etc.

Today was meant to be a site visit to a) confirm that there was no alternative but to dig a hole and b) to mark out where the hole was. Except Thames don't know where the leak is, and have no way of finding out.

So where the fuck was the hole meant to be? No answer.

My insurers also don't know where the leak is. Chap from loss adjusters said it would require tracing to work out where it is but that I 'probably' haven't got cover for that.

So the water co want me to dig a hole except they don't know where the leak is or where to dig. My insurers will pay for the damage done by digging the hole, but won't dig it until they know where the leak is, the detection of which I'm not covered for.

Is this not utter madness? What on earth am I meant to do??!

I have to say, I'm an intelligent and articulate person and I am struggling against this tide of bullshit, fuck knows how other people would manage. I had to ask about alternatives to the digging, because pillock from my insurers didn't realise that was part of his brief...

We're not on a water meter thankfully. Dread to think how much the bill would be by now...

Spoke to TW complaints dep't who are already dealing. They had understood yesterday was to mark out (for my insurers) where the leak was, so they could dig! And cover off why the pipe can't just be rerouted.

They are contacting the customer side leak team for an answer. So I'll expect to wait another week for something to happen.

For this kind of crap, stop allowing for reasonable timescales. Believe nothing chase twice a day. Try and force a names contact (ask everyone their name and write it down)

Hi Sue, I spoke to John this morning he said they were contacting the customer leak team, have you had a response yet? No? I'll phone back in an hour hope to have heard something."

"Hi Sarah, I was jist speaking to Sue an hour ago, has she had a response yet? Is Sue there?" Eventually poor Sue will be the person that ends up taking your calls ans starts chasing up your correspondence for you etc.

If you're told thr answer might take a fee days say that's no problem but I'll just ring every day to make sure there's no update. "As I'm sure you can appreciate this is causing considerable disruption to my home and personal stress so it's very important to me that there is no further delay. I'll call back today at 3.30"

5 months ! dear gods you must be a saint not to have strangled someone by now...
Tracing leaks like these can be really really difficult, as if the pipe is in the concrete it will have corroded in multiple locations. You'll need specialist leak detection to find it. I can offer some advice, but can you answer a few questions - Does you insurance policy cover "trace and access" under the escape of water section of your buildings cover? Is there any water damage inside your property? Does your "buildings" definition include drives?

oh and you need to register a formal complaint with your insurers too, that will help when you're trying to get things sorted.

I have all the names of everyone I speak to, but the pace everything moves at is glacial.

I was told the leak had been located. This is clearly not the case. I've advised CCW as I'm running out of patience with TW.

I've checked policy wording. I have trace and access cover up to £5000. However this is to cover repair/ reinstatement of the building...my kitchen cost £10k (that doesn't include the floor) so that won't be nearly enough .

There is no internal damage. This is probably because my house is over 5ft off the ground at the front, and about 1-2ft at the back (built on a slope). The bottom of the exterior walls are visibly wet. I've pointed this out to both my insurers and TW.

The insurers have already agreed to cover the damage to my driveway; the leak wasn't there of course.

We had similar.

Anglian water insisted on installing meters despite us not wanting it. I told them they really should not mess with old pipework! Anyway, they went ahead and hey ho, we had a leak at the site of the meter,about a foot from my front door in the pavement.

They sent two lads to fix the leak. Every time they tried to reaattach the pipe it crumbled. When it reached my porch they said that now it wasn't their problem but mine! I went ballistic. It was late and they said they were going to turn off the water for the night and continue in the morning. Ten mins later al the neighbours came running out, it had turned off their water too. Thank goodness I didn't pay by the meter, nobody knew one point supplied everyone.

The supply for all the houses in the terrace seemed to run under my house. I said I refused any digging in my house and supplying all the neighbours with water was not my responsibility but theirs. They all had individual contracts with the water company and it was none of my business. It was their resposibility to privide their costomers with water not mine. In the end they called in a specialist company to deal with it and they (AW) paid for it. They capped the point outside my door and tunneled in front of and then around to the back of all the terraces. Everybody now has their own supply, meter and stopcock. I refused to have the water back on (even though it meant the neighbours didn't have any) as I said I'm not digging up my floor. How they got water to the neighbours was their business to sort put. One of pur neighbours is also quite sick and one couple frail and old, we pressed this point home and this helped to speed up the repairs. Four days later they were all done. Good luck!

Have you tweeted either of these threads to TW? Sometimes that can be really helpful as hundreds of people see the tweets and read the threads. TW don't tend to want the publicity.

The water companies are shocking. They have customers over a barrel. You have no choice and no power. Has OfWat been involved at all? (I'm assuming they exist and aren't a figment of my imagination!)

This is going to be a real problem to sort out , if nobody has actually confirmed where the leak is then there is little point in considering ripping up you kitchen floor, the leak might not even be there or even on your supply pipe. I would recommend that you get your insurers to appoint a leak detection expert and start from there. Whilst this will take some of you t&a cover money, doing anything else would pointless.

Then the argument needs to be had again with an expert view on rerouting the pipes, as when I've previously dealt with claims like this it's been the only successful solution in the long term.

I'm not on twitter but maybe I'll have to join.

It's the Consumer Council for Water who are the regulator for customers (I thought it was Ofwat too). I've emailed my contact there.

My insurers are waiting for the report from the LA's agent who came out. Thames are waiting for this further investigation on Fri. No one can explain why I was told they knew where the leak was when they clearly don't!

If you're planning on setting up a Twitter account, do it now, before you need it. Then get as many people as you can to follow you. It has more impact and if you can get hundreds or thousands, the company will be terrified and you'll certainly get an immediate reaction...

The further update today is that my insurers agents have spoken to TW (I'm told this is them doing me a favour as I should be doing all the toing and froing...really?!) and it's been agreed TW will come back out on Fri as apparently they will then be able to detect where the leak is. Even though they said that before.

I've asked for the pipe to be rerouted round my house to avoid digging holes etc. Agents say they agree this is best but TW won't do it.

The bit I don't get (based on comments upthread about water meters which got me thinking) is this: last year sometime, TW as part of general works going on in my area, dug up all our pavements locally and installed water meter 'points' in the pavement outside our front gardens. AFAIK anyone who moves to a house in our area has to have a water meter but they're not compulsory for existing residents.

But how can I or my neighbours ever have water meters if the main water supply runs from the main in the pavement in front of my house, under my garden and house and then (under my kitchen allegedly) splits off into the 4 supply pipes for my neighbours....they have no direct supply from the street at all? Thinking of contacting TW to ask for an explanation.

It's a bit bonkers, isn't it? I imagine it's a kind of hereditary arrangement, installed like that as 'new' houses got built, or people wanted to be connected - how old are the houses? Hundreds of years, or decades? (THat's just curiosity, btw, don't answer of you don't want to).

Can they put meter points at the places where the supplies diverge, ie, after your house as it runs into the next house? We have an electricity thing a bit like that. The supply comes in from the road to our house to a meter, and then a supply cable comes out of our meter into another meter which supplies another building. We pay the whole lot and bill the extra as shown on the second meter to the people there. Don't accept an arrangement like that though!