Earthing lead: plumber's responsibility?

[jan V]

Hi,

Couple of days ago we had a plumber renew about 8 meters of water pipes in the cellar. He billed us £300 for the joy...

Now I've noticed he snipped the earth leads which were connected to some elements he replaced, but he didn't bother to reconnect the earth leads.

Q: Can I phone him and say "Oi, you left our earth leads disconnected, you mind reconnecting them pronto?"

... or is this the norm that a plumber can disrupt that aspect of the electrics, and just leave it to an electrician to fix ????

[shazzbat]

Of course you can, and you should. It's his job to make it good. He shouldn't have snipped the wires, he should have disconnected them and reconnected.

You say he billed you, have you paid it? If not, don't pay until he puts it right. If you paid him by cheque, Phone him and tell him to put it right or you'll put a stop on it, assuming it's not too late.

Steve

[Stewart]

Did he replace metal pipes with plastic? Was the earth continuity cable attached to the lead pipes or to a fitting? If the cable was attached to the lead pipe and he replaced it with metal then I think that he would have been responsible to re-attach. If it is now plastic then perhaps you do need an electrician.

[jan V]

Yes. But there are plenty of metal pipes coming into the house.

To a fitting, which he removed and replaced with another metal affair...

I'm just amazed that these guys are gambling with very serious legal liabilities. If someone got electrocuted because of his (stupid) mistake, he'd be looking at a career-altering court case. He snipped the cables in the first place... I can't understand how he didn't make sure the leads were reconnected. They stick out by a mile at the moment...