British Gas collapsed sewage pipe

[Julie Aitken]

We had a collapsed sewage pipe which was dug up and we discovered was caused by British Gas renewing their pipes 8 years ago and they had drilled right through it and had obviously not surveyed the ground beforehand. We have had constant trouble over the years from blockages and smells and had to pay to have them cleared out and this has solved the issue for a short period of time but we never questioned it as we live in an old house. It wasn’t until the pipe totally collapsed and when we flushed our toilet it came bubbling up through our mono blocking which subsequently had subsided that we knew it was something more than our usual problem. We contacted SGN and after a long week of living with a open sewer a sub contractor came out and fixed the pipe and replaced our mono blocking ( very badly) and took away a small amount of earth. We are not happy with the” fix” as when we spoke to SGN they said that they would have to dig out all the contaminated earth which has been getting seeped into for years and also at times the sewage has filled my whole path! We are getting an assessor out today( was supposed to come before the job was done) and just want to know our legal rights before talking to him. We think we may be offered compensation ( no clue of how much) but I would also like my path lifted and redone. Is this an unreasonable request?

[Razzmatazz]

Hi Julie,

I have just posted regarding a very similar problem we are facing. Have you had any feedback on this issue regarding compensation etc?