Not a great day.....

[styut]

Two weeks ago I moved into my nice new house. Yesterday I woke up and thought I could smell gas. The neighbours said the same, so we called the gas people. Their meter readings went off the scale, so we were evacuated straight away.

As I drove my car off the drive, this happenned :





The pavement completely collapsed, the car fell down the hole, leaving the back wheel on top of the ruptured gas pipe. The whole road was then closed, and it took the fire brigade, police, gas people another six hours before they got the car out. In the end they had to get one of the trucks that's used for lifting illegally parked cars, and because they couldn't get underneath the car they put the straps through the windows and lifted it by the roof. They also had to get a fire engine down there and sprayed it with water as they lifted it in case it generated any sparks and set off the gas

This is what's left of the pavement :







Basically there was next to nothing under the pavement, and it was only some jedi force magic that was keeping it up. My drive is now buggered, the car is probably buggered, and no doubt I'll now have to spend god knows how long having to sort it all out with the insurers and council.

All in all, not a great day!!

[Stringpants]

Bad Day....

That is shocking...I guess there will be a record of who did the last work on that area.....

I can imagine you are well p****d off.

Russ.

[Banishit]

wow what a mess just from a smell of gas, surely the fitters would be responsible for your drive too

[mk1gaz]

Blimey that's an unlucky tale . Hope you get it sorted fella .

[gazzamk2]

Bloody hell - Nightmare. Could have ended so much worse tho.....

[RS2000CUSTOM]

Gutted for you mate but I cannot believe you were even allowed to start the car with so much gas in the area

[RS2000EXPRESS]

Sorry to read about this and hope you get things sorted ok. What damage is there to your car, it looks a nice one?

[Mogsmex]

'king 'ell, nightmare Stu

at least it wasnt GOO they picked up round the roof !

hope you get it sorted soon, not a good way to start off in a new gaff, are the gas board liable for the lot ?

[RS2000CUSTOM]

are the gas board liable for the lot ?

Like like a number of utilities pass his front drive and the gas pipe just happens to have been the one leaking

This will be a nightmare to sort but I would go to the council and ask for a list of the last authorised "works" carried out on the area.

The ground appears to have been washed away from under the pavement

[Chris]

Not good, I would imagine your motor and household insurance companies will be able to claim off the utility company's liability insurance though?

[topaz]

are you not supposed to drive off the drive the other side of the bollard

[styut]

are you not supposed to drive off the drive the other side of the bollard

I always normally do, but it was blocked by various gas vans at the time, so I just drove out the other way. The council are going to fix the pavement, but who fixes the drive is another matter. The water board fitted a new meter about 3 weeks ago, so all fingers are being pointed at them at the moment.

We'll wait and see. Just very fed up with it at the mo.

[lee bishop]

well if they fitted it badly and it leaked that is why the substrate has washed away ??

a few years ago we had our stop ****s replaced for the 1/4 turn plastic ones, after the work was done i could hear a high pitched squeeling in my bathroom, i spent hours trying to find what had happened until i went out to turn the water off to find the cap where a meter would be fitted wasn't on properly, it had been leaking the sound traveled up the pipe into my house, no evidence of water leaking was evident above ground.

that looks awful mate i hope it gets sorted swiftly for you

[marky4]

thats not good hope you get things sorted ok, but it could have been alot worse

[Dave Raver]

Hi Mate,

I've spoke to my missus about this one and showed her the pics as she is a civil engineer and deals with highways etc.

She says that in the first instance the local authority are liable for the maintenance, upkeep and safety of the pavements and highway itself. She reckons that an enquiry/complaint/claim should be put to them via your insurance company and that they are legal bound to investigate what has occurred.

If they establish that it is down to bad workmanship of any work carried out gas/electrical/water then you can claim from local authrity and they then claim from the contractor who did the said work, however sometimes they may refer you and your insurance company direct to the contractor who is at fault.

She said don't let them fob you off, do everything in writing as anything said over the phone is unusuable is evidence and take legal advice or speak to citizens advice should you need any further help.

What a nightmare! Hope it's gets sorted for you.

Dave Raver