Is the plumber liable?

[Greggorio]

Ok my mother had a new boiler fitted and one of the pipes in the house has leaked due to pressure. Now the plumber says it is due to limescale in the pipe which has become dislodged and a pinhole sized hole been steadily dripping for 3 weeks and ruined one of the ceilings (which the plumber went at with a chisel and the whole ceiling came down on one of her bedrooms including the computer that he told her she didnt need to move).

Now apparently the hole happened because the new boiler ties in with the mains differently somehow and therefore the pipes inside the house that previously were not at mains pressure are now at it and therefore this dislodged this piece of limescale and created the leak. Now is it his responsibilty to check the pipes are upto it with a pressure test before attaching the boiler or is it my mothers fault that her pipes are rubbish.

Basically is the leak the plumbers fault or just an unfortunate happening.

Is the mess the plumbers responsiblity or my mothers? Is fixing the leak the plumbers cost or my mothers etc

I just want to know based on current uk regulations and not "what should happen in an ideal world".

thanks for any help in advance

 

[thomas donovan]

if he has given a written quotation he probably mentioned that he would not be liable for any existing pipework due to the fact that most of it is hidden the leak probably wouldn't have shown up immediatley so it would be hard to detect. all any plumber can guarantee is the work that he/she does. sadly its down to your mother to swallow the cost of the damage

 

[Guy]

Can she not claim on her house insurance? The plumber would not be liable as ^^ said above, the plumber can only guarantee the work they do.

 

[Greggorio]

You say he's not liable but he should have the equipment to pressure test the pipes. i mean i live in France where they have 10 bars on the mains so pressure testing the pipes is a normal thing to do... to avoid leaks.

See from my point of view the fact he could have done something very simple to avoid it seems to mean he hasnt done his job properly

 

[Gray0689]

Yes like said above if he did not put in the bit of pipe that leaked it's not realy his fault
But if he ruined a computer bye telling your mother not to move it I would not be happy I'd call the insurance but I would not get that plumber back to do the work

 

[Guy]

Did your mother check if the plumber had the relevant liability insurance before taking him on?

 

[traineedrip]

Theres nothing to say the leak happened straight after the boiler was fitted, could have been some time later. I had a callback to a new rad id fitted, aparently leaking but it was an old original end feed coupling that had a pin hole leak. As it wasnt the Rad id fitted and in my view there was no extra load on the pipes from my work so customer paid. Id say your mums house insurance is the way forward.

 

[fuzzy]

wouldnt be fair to blame someone for something they didnt do

 

[Greggorio]

ok I wouldn't say it wasn't fair. If I was a plumber I'd assume it would be very basic knowledge to know that if the pipes were old and they currently did not have to deal with mains pressure and I was going to introduce mains pressure to them then I should check if they could handle it. then if they don't I would be able to advise the client.

Anyway

 

[fuzzy]

yeh maybe he should have made more thorough checks, hell prob claim it had nothing to do with him,. I would have pointed it out at first and recommended replaceing, if you chose not to it would have been on your head

 

[Toddyplumb]

There is no difference if fitting pipes and fittings to mains pressure or gravity systems the joints etc are all identical. Now a radiator might hole after a conversion but for a pipe to pin hole this guy has been really unlucky, as has your Mum.
Would a pressure test have picked up a drip that has taken 3 weeks to appear ? Does it leak only when hot ?
Would you have paid for a pressure test ? The cost of finding and locating the leak would /could have cost a bit
My personal opinion is its a bit unfair to blame the plumber

 

[Centralheatking]

When we do a replacement boiler there is always our disclaimer - we cannot cover existing pipework - this is I
believe standard - I do not know about France.

centralheatking

 

[Bernie2]

It is true you can't guarantee pipework you can't see.
But it would seem basic common sense to pressure test an old system to see if it can take the pressure before you do anything else if the job is of any size and the old pipework had been working at standard gravity pressure before.

But would anybody install a new boiler on a system caked with lime scale?

Surely a lime scale cleaner and a Power flush should have been used before they installed a new boiler?

With the lime scale removed the leak may have shown up with a pressure test before the installation took place.