On The Case
Post categories: home,听on the case
| 16:30 UK time, Monday, 26 March 2012
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Barclay Samson thought buying a new-build house in Newport would mean low maintenance, until waste water started leaking from his toilet. Barclay and his wife Claire bought their three bedroom townhouse from Bellway Homes in 2006 . But they say that, they rarely used the bathroom on the middle floor until recently.When they did, they say听 the toilet started to leak.
鈥淲e had sewage water all over the bathroom floor so a bit of a panic,鈥 said Barclay.鈥淭owels on the floor trying mop that water up and trying to contend with the smell as well.鈥
Water also got into the space between the kitchen ceiling and the floor. An engineer took a look at the bathroom and found a problem with the pipework.
Barclay said: 鈥淏asically the leak itself came out the back of the waste pipe, literally just behind the toilet. The plumber came to repair that and that's when it became pretty obvious that there's a problem with the slope of the wastepipe itself. It's got a pretty obvious slope up hill. 鈥淯nless I was taught wrong at school on the laws of physics, that's clearly the wrong direction for water to flow.鈥
Barclay got in touch with Bellway Homes, who disputed they were at fault. 鈥淭heir view was a bit of a surprise really because they felt that there was no come back on them,鈥 he said. 鈥淢ain reason being that they thought it couldn't be a major issue as it had taken so long to show itself, but as we talked about that bathroom has only really been started to be used over the last few months or so.鈥
Barclay felt Bellway Homes should repair the pipework. 鈥淚t's pretty clear that there is an issue caused by their original work when the property was built.鈥
Lucy got on the case for Barclay and found that the Supply of Goods & Services Act covers work done by tradespeople. It means that you should expect that a service is carried out with reasonable care and skill. In Barclay鈥檚 case, Bellway Homes pointed out that the house is six years old and as there hasn't been a leak in the bathroom until February of this year, they disputed any fault. They believe the leak is down to general wear and tear.
However, as a gesture of goodwill, they agreed to repair the bathroom free-of-charge.
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