Water Service...oops!

[mark]

Today I was digging a trench for the footings of a front boundary wall.

The soil was very hard and the fork accidently made contact with the black water service and the resultant fountain was something they would have been proud of at Chatsworth.

This was on the main side of the stop tap.

Called Anglian Water. They seemed more interested in getting details of where and to whom to send the bill.

The defect was subsequently repaired.

This service pipe was at 550mm deep. I believe they should be at 750mm.

So on this basis can I realistically challenge the bill when it arrives?

mark

[Colin Wilson]

Can you show the ground levels haven't been altered since it was originally installed ?

[mark]

"Colin Wilson" wrote in message news: [e-mail]...

Yes. The ground is pretty much level with the public footpath.

[Colin Wilson]

Could get interesting then... although I suspect if privately owned, you'd end up footing the bill regardless :-/

[Andy Hall]

Challenge it anyway.

Tell them you're refering it to Ofwat.

Let them sue.

[Rod]

Shouldn't have been forking in your garden... :-)

But I am reading it right that this is just the pipe that feeds your house and not a pipe that feeds other properties as well? Just an outside possibility that this could be a factor - but not sure in what way.

[mark]

It is the service supplying my house only.

mark

[Kevin Poole]

I went through similar thoughts when a JCB took a lump out of my gas service pipe, 8 inches below the surface. "The Gas Board", or whoever it was 9 years ago, shrugged their metaphorical shoulders and said that moled-in pipes do sometimes wander around a little. In the end my house insurers paid up, with just a little discussion about whether the second incident on the same day required a second deductible.

Anglian Water may reasonably ask whether the OP checked the likely line of the service and estimated its depth from, for example, the depth of the stop tap. I think that the buildings insurance route is the way to go in this case.

[Mike Dodd]

Had a similar experience with new-build home, digging over the garden and "finding" a blue water pipe with a garden fork. A gurgle and hiss later, and I leaned over to see where the noise was coming from... a few seconds later and I was a perfect candidate for Beadle.

North-West Water, at the time, came down (despite it being on my property, after the stop-c*ck), closed the SC and let me dig down to reveal the water main at around 40cm depth - turns out it was a "temporary" feed to where the builder's portaloos were, which had been disconnected and capped AFTER my property.

All the engineer seemed interested in was WHO laid the pipe at that depth (confirmed it should be 750mm), and certainly gave the impression that he was going to take the matter up with THEM. No bill for me, guy even refused a few tins, saying he was just doing his job. He repaired the damage and left.