Gas mains has damaged my Sewage drain. Help please?

[charitynjw]

Re: Gas mains has damaged my Sewage drain. Help please?

Hi funkyphantom,

Are you conducting 'negotiations' in writing, or on the 'phone?

If the latter, it would be an idea to start a paper trail.

E-mail is good; email to their head honcho is better.

[CleverClogs]

Re: Gas mains has damaged my Sewage drain. Help please?

Hi funkyphantom,

Are you conducting 'negotiations' in writing, or on the 'phone?

If the latter, it would be an idea to start a paper trail.

E-mail is good; email to their head honcho is better.

The e-mail address you require is steven.holliday@ngrid.com

HTH.

[funkyphantom]

Re: Gas mains has damaged my Sewage drain. Help please?

Hi, thanks for your replies. This is the email I recieved yesterday:


Dear Mr ********

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Re: damage to drainage/sewage pipe at ********** - compensation claim

Further to our email of 13/03/12 (below), we received a telephone call from our Customer Support colleague who advised us that you are unable to provide any documentary evidence of your outlays in relation to the damage to your foul drain.

We advised our Operational colleagues of this situation, and having further considered your claim, National Grid would like to offer you the amount of £400 as a full and final settlement for your claim. This amount takes into account the unblocking of your drain by a contractor soon after you moved into your property, the camera survey that was undertaken in your drain and a goodwill payment for the inconvenience you have experienced.

Can you please reply to this email advising whether you accept this offer.

Yours sincerely

To which I replied:

Dear Mr *******
I find your offer of £400 completely insulting. Could you please explain how you and your colleagues have arrived at a figure of £400?
Lets break this down: The payment of £250 for the camera survey + £80 for the original 'unblock' when we first moved in, thats £330. So what your saying is, for my family to be putting up with excrement bubbling up from my manhole, manually unblocking it with my own hands, yes I know it sounds disgusting, but, on occasions, this is what I did! Traveling to and from work to go and fetch drainage rods, spending goodness knows how many hours pushing and pulling said rods in and out of my drain. Putting up with the stench, inside, and outside for 8 years! Having neighbours moan at me that they can smell my drain whilst sitting out in their garden, and the stress of worrying about how on earth I'm going to afford to get it fixed! Not to mention the fear of sending the kids outside because they may catch some god awful disease! You put the price of all that at £70?? I cannot even begin to tell you how insulting that is to me!
I hate to threaten, but please, if you don't CONSIDERABLY up your offer of compensation, i will be seeking further advice from a Solicitor!
Regards

I know I probably should have thought about the reply a little more, and perhaps waited for you wonderful people help me construct a well worded letter. But thought I'd 'get everything out in the open' with an 'emotional' reply.

I have pictures right through the process, from the first dig, to the pictures of their gas pipe going through my drain. To the completley shoddy 're-instatement' of which someone is coming out to look at tomorrow.

Kind Regards
FP

[funkyphantom]

Re: Gas mains has damaged my Sewage drain. Help please?

Hi funkyphantom,

Are you conducting 'negotiations' in writing, or on the 'phone?

If the latter, it would be an idea to start a paper trail.

E-mail is good; email to their head honcho is better.

Hi Charity.
Yes the negotiations with the claims team are all in writing (email) however, i have been talking to a customer service lady over the phone, who, to be fair seems to be 'on my side' encouraging me to claim more compensation from National Grid.

Should I 'escalate' this to their head honcho?

Thanks
FP

[CleverClogs]

Re: Gas mains has damaged my Sewage drain. Help please?

Perhaps they thought that, as you have become accustomed to handling s-h-i-t, a little more would not offend?

Have you checked out if the turd torrent has affected the house foundations or poisoned the soil in your garden?

For your work, plus loss of amenity and possible damage to your property, you could be due £4000 or more.

[funkyphantom]

Re: Gas mains has damaged my Sewage drain. Help please?

I think you should tell you that is about one tenth of the minimum you were prepared to accept. Take photos of the shoddy work.

If you could make a list of the ways in which this has inconvenienced you, I'm sure we can put together a powerful letter to encourage them to rethink their offer.

Thanks Labman.
A well constructed letter would be fantastic for my next reply.
Thanks

[CleverClogs]

Re: Gas mains has damaged my Sewage drain. Help please?

Should I 'escalate' this to their head honcho?

Yes.

[funkyphantom]

Re: Gas mains has damaged my Sewage drain. Help please?

Perhaps they thought that, as you have become accustomed to handling ****, a little more would not offend?

Have you checked out if the turd torrent has affected the house foundations or poisoned the soil in your garden?

For your work, plus loss of amenity and possible damage to your property, you could be due £4000 or more.

I know it sounds silly, but i hadn't really thought of the house foundations. I had thought about the soil in my garden, and to be fair, it more than likely is polluted as it was running down the steps and killed my lawn originally (I've dug it up, and put slate there now). I wonder if the environments agency would need to hear about this?
Regards
FP

[CleverClogs]

Re: Gas mains has damaged my Sewage drain. Help please?

I know it sounds silly, but i hadn't really thought of the house foundations. I had thought about the soil in my garden, and to be fair, it more than likely is polluted as it was running down the steps and killed my lawn originally (I've dug it up, and put slate there now). I wonder if the environments agency would need to hear about this?

What harm would it do to ask them or, for that matter, to ask your local environmental health wallahs?

[funkyphantom]

Re: Gas mains has damaged my Sewage drain. Help please?

Just a quick update. National Grid came to my property to look at the balls up of a re-instatement to my drive. He admitted it was a terrible job, and proceeded to sweep up my drive, clean the wall and wash down the neighbours gate. He said another re-instatement team will be out to clear out the cement and infill with paving slabs (as originally agreed.) Im yet to hear from the Claims department. If I haven't heard anything by this time tomorrow, I shall email 'Head Honcho'
Thanks
FP

[funkyphantom]

Re: Gas mains has damaged my Sewage drain. Help please?

Hi, thanks for your replies. This is the email I recieved yesterday:


Dear Mr ********

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Re: damage to drainage/sewage pipe at ********** - compensation claim

Further to our email of 13/03/12 (below), we received a telephone call from our Customer Support colleague who advised us that you are unable to provide any documentary evidence of your outlays in relation to the damage to your foul drain.

We advised our Operational colleagues of this situation, and having further considered your claim, National Grid would like to offer you the amount of £400 as a full and final settlement for your claim. This amount takes into account the unblocking of your drain by a contractor soon after you moved into your property, the camera survey that was undertaken in your drain and a goodwill payment for the inconvenience you have experienced.

Can you please reply to this email advising whether you accept this offer.

Yours sincerely

To which I replied:

Dear Mr *******
I find your offer of £400 completely insulting. Could you please explain how you and your colleagues have arrived at a figure of £400?
Lets break this down: The payment of £250 for the camera survey + £80 for the original 'unblock' when we first moved in, thats £330. So what your saying is, for my family to be putting up with excrement bubbling up from my manhole, manually unblocking it with my own hands, yes I know it sounds disgusting, but, on occasions, this is what I did! Traveling to and from work to go and fetch drainage rods, spending goodness knows how many hours pushing and pulling said rods in and out of my drain. Putting up with the stench, inside, and outside for 8 years! Having neighbours moan at me that they can smell my drain whilst sitting out in their garden, and the stress of worrying about how on earth I'm going to afford to get it fixed! Not to mention the fear of sending the kids outside because they may catch some god awful disease! You put the price of all that at £70?? I cannot even begin to tell you how insulting that is to me!
I hate to threaten, but please, if you don't CONSIDERABLY up your offer of compensation, i will be seeking further advice from a Solicitor!
Regards

I know I probably should have thought about the reply a little more, and perhaps waited for you wonderful people help me construct a well worded letter. But thought I'd 'get everything out in the open' with an 'emotional' reply.

I have pictures right through the process, from the first dig, to the pictures of their gas pipe going through my drain. To the completley shoddy 're-instatement' of which someone is coming out to look at tomorrow.

Kind Regards
FP

Ok so I have received an email from them, stating that they think that the £400 offer is acceptable. Is it me, or does anyone else think that this seem rather a pitiful amount considering the s*** (literally) I've had to put up with over the years? Any advice would be most welcome.

Dear Mr *****

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Re: damage to drainage/sewage pipe at ******** – compensation claim

I acknowledge receipt of your email dated 15/03/12 (below).

National Grid accepts that a gas service pipe installed by moling technique to your property has penetrated your drain, so causing the problems you have experienced since you moved to the property, and we acknowledge that you and your family have suffered inconvenience and experienced an unpleasant situation in relation to this. We have been advised by our Operational colleagues that upon being advised of the damage to your drain, National Grid arranged for your drain to be repaired in a timely manner. However, in the absence of any documentary evidence to substantiate the outlays you have made to alleviate the problems with your drain, we are unable to increase our offer that we made to you on 15/03/12. Therefore, National Grid maintains its offer of £400 as a full and final settlement for this claim. If you are able to provide us with documentary evidence in relation to your outlays, then we will reconsider our position.

We look forward to your response in due course.

Yours sincerely

[CleverClogs]

Re: Gas mains has damaged my Sewage drain. Help please?

Ok so I have received an email from them, stating that they think that the £400 offer is acceptable. Is it me, or does anyone else think that this seem rather a pitiful amount considering the s*** (literally) I've had to put up with over the years? Any advice would be most welcome.

Dear Mr *****

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Re: damage to drainage/sewage pipe at ******** – compensation claim

I acknowledge receipt of your email dated 15/03/12 (below).

National Grid accepts that a gas service pipe installed by moling technique to your property has penetrated your drain, so causing the problems you have experienced since you moved to the property, and we acknowledge that you and your family have suffered inconvenience and experienced an unpleasant situation in relation to this. We have been advised by our Operational colleagues that upon being advised of the damage to your drain, National Grid arranged for your drain to be repaired in a timely manner. However, in the absence of any documentary evidence to substantiate the outlays you have made to alleviate the problems with your drain, we are unable to increase our offer that we made to you on 15/03/12. Therefore, National Grid maintains its offer of £400 as a full and final settlement for this claim. If you are able to provide us with documentary evidence in relation to your outlays, then we will reconsider our position.

We look forward to your response in due course.

Yours sincerely

Was that pile of poo from their head honcho, or merely from the complaints department?

Have you contacted anyone at your local council (environmental health or planning and building) concerning the effect the repeated turd torrent may have adversely affected your garden and/or house? If the foundations have been undermined, they will need to be underpinned and that will cost a lot more than £70. If the garden has been polluted and the topsoil needed to be replaced, that would also exceed £70.

Have you seen a lawyer about this? You have their admission of culpability, so it should only be a matter of twisting more money from the company. If they see that the case might end up in court - where they would not really have much chance to deny responsibility - they might be rather more generous.

You might also wish to contact your local press, or consumer programmes such as You and Yours (on the BBC Home Service) or the television programme Watchdog. If you have any photos of the inundated garden or your poo-filled patio, those should be quite useful, as adverse publicity in the news media can also cause companies to pay sensible amounts in compensation.

[funkyphantom]

Re: Gas mains has damaged my Sewage drain. Help please?

Hi CleverClogs,
Thanks for taking the time out to reply to me. I haven't emailed the 'Head Honcho' yet, as i wanted to wait for their reply from my email first. I believe now is time for a stern letter to the main man! Would you, or anyone be able to help me construct a strong well written letter?
I havent gotten in touch with my local council as I'm not really sure who to contact. I did call them to ask who i needed to speak to about a week ago, but I got no reply.
I'm kind of thinking I will need to contact a Solicitor/Lawyer about this, should a stern letter to their head honcho not get me anywhere. Or should I get legal advice before I send the letter? The only problem is, is I don't have much or any spare money available, wouldn't legal advise be costly?
I don't have photos of the turd torrent unfortunately, although there are remnants of toilet paper still around the grid and on my steps, which i have purposefully left for National Grid to see. Should i take photos of this? I do have pictures of the pipe going through my sewage drain though.
I guess they think I am lying about how much trouble I have had with this drain since we moved in as I have no receipts to back it up. If I had paid for every time the drain got blocked, I would be in a heck of a lot more debt now than I am already! I think the only evidence that I may have that could prove me right would be if my neighbours would be prepared to back me up. Although they don't really speak to me, as we had an argument about the smell from the drain a couple years ago!
Regards
FP

[CleverClogs]

Re: Gas mains has damaged my Sewage drain. Help please?

Hi CleverClogs,
Thanks for taking the time out to reply to me. I haven't emailed the 'Head Honcho' yet, as i wanted to wait for their reply from my email first. I believe now is time for a stern letter to the main man! Would you, or anyone be able to help me construct a strong well written letter?
I havent gotten in touch with my local council as I'm not really sure who to contact. I did call them to ask who i needed to speak to about a week ago, but I got no reply.
I'm kind of thinking I will need to contact a Solicitor/Lawyer about this, should a stern letter to their head honcho not get me anywhere. Or should I get legal advice before I send the letter? The only problem is, is I don't have much or any spare money available, wouldn't legal advise be costly?
I don't have photos of the turd torrent unfortunately, although there are remnants of toilet paper still around the grid and on my steps, which i have purposefully left for National Grid to see. Should i take photos of this? I do have pictures of the pipe going through my sewage drain though.
I guess they think I am lying about how much trouble I have had with this drain since we moved in as I have no receipts to back it up. If I had paid for every time the drain got blocked, I would be in a heck of a lot more debt now than I am already! I think the only evidence that I may have that could prove me right would be if my neighbours would be prepared to back me up. Although they don't really speak to me, as we had an argument about the smell from the drain a couple years ago!
Regards
FP

BRB

[funkyphantom]

Re: Gas mains has damaged my Sewage drain. Help please?

haha :P