Boiler fitted, Pipe burst, House damaged.

Diagro

Diagro

Diagro

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Joined
3 Jun 2012
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11,259
Hey

My friend has recently had British Gas replace his heating system with a Combi Boiler.
They removed the tank.


A Week later (last night) A pipe has burst in the bathroom (hot water feed to a tap), according to the Live data thing he has it was running for 2 hours before the ceiling fell down.

His Front room is swimming, Carpets ruined, Electrical Stuff destroyed, sofa's are ruined.
The Kitchen is ruined, Ceiling has come down, All cupboards ruined, fridge now dead, all electrical stuff seems to no longer work.

British gas have come back today and done a repair on the pipe that burst, and the guy who came has said that because they cant survey the pipes before fitting new boilers in many homes they have no Liability in this situation.

Is this right? From his and my views they are liable. They have changed his water system from a non pressurised mavity fed hot water to a Pressurised system with 2Bar.

The Pipe bursting is a direct result of this extra pressure, thus is a result for their work.

He had a Burglary claim already this year so is dreading calling the insurance co.

What would you do? Chase British Gas or Claim on insurance? He has already informed BG that he wont be paying a penny further until the house is back to how it was before.
 
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If he asked British Gas to replace his boiler with a pressurised system, I don't see how this would be their fault. They did what he asked them to.

The only way I could see you getting British Gas to foot the bill would be going down the route of being mis-sold the new system, not been informed of the risks etc. You're probably best just going through insurance tbh.
 
They are 100% liable. If they aren't 100% certain that the pipes will withstand the pressure, they shouldn't go near it. You can't just go from a open vented system to a closed system, and this is exactly why. Did they even fit an expansion vessel?

EDIT: Related to Phantom's post, I am of course assuming that they recommended this and didn't go on instruction of the owner.
 
He simply asked them to replace his hot water system with something better, and asked them to give advice based on his current house's setup. Based on this advice he had them go ahead with the installation. No idea about an expansion system, He is currently on the phone with British gas and filling a formal complaint.
 
Diagro said:
He simply asked them to replace his hot water system with something better, and asked them to give advice based on his current house's setup. Based on this advice he had them go ahead with the installation.
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Definitely sounds like he was mis-sold the new system then if he hasn't actually asked for a pressurised system.

If he has difficulty getting British Gas to agree he could get a quote for repairs and if less than £10k try going through the small claims court. I'd check anything that was signed before they carried out the work though, there may well be a clause in there stating they haven't checked the pipes and therefore aren't liable.
 
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Insurance jobby im afraid, as long as they can show they installed the boiler to the correct standards, which they will have done.

However, he should have been informed prior to installing that adding a pressurized system to old pipes may cause issues.

Thats what it will come down to basically, was he informed or signed anything explaining he was told the potential issues?
 
I would expect British Gas to have warned him that going to a pressurised system risks burst pipes if his mavity based system has been around for a long time. I'd be very surprised if they hadn't done that before starting on the work.
 
I just asked him.

He said that the salesman offered the Combi as a best all round solution.
He mentioned that it is moving from a non pressure system to a pressured and used this as a way to big up the sell (higher pressure shower Blah blah).
At no stage did the salesman warn him of burst pipes, because if he had they would have gone for a mavity fed again or just left it as it is.
 
BG have taken the details and started an investigation.
He has a complaint number, and they are sending someone to survey the damage and the pipes to see what was at fault.
 
Wouldn't this be handled by his insurance anyway, like a car crash, let the insurance company argue with BG over responsibility.

Andi.
 
This is my worst nightmare, looking to replace our boiler this year at some point (old Worchester beast) as it's over 20 years old.

Then again I hate our sofa.
 
Halfmad said:
This is my worst nightmare, looking to replace our boiler this year at some point (old Worchester beast) as it's over 20 years old.

Then again I hate our sofa.
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There are many ways to kill a sofa without resorting to flooding your house :p
 
Diagro said:
I think he is just worried about his next years premium.
I think he will call them today
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Might as well not bother with insurance then, I could understand if he was worried about claiming for a new TV and it being worth the premium increase but this is certainly one of those times which will be worth an increased future premium.
 
I was worried about this happening on my my old 1960's copper but surely its common sense?

I checked all visable pipes for any signs of weeping and monitored the pressure and didnt have any issue.

Its more likely someone had replaced the hot tap in bathroom and not compressed the joint enough? I cant see how BG are responsible. Maybe if the central heating circuit failed but not a tap.
 
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