Drainage

[Paul Mannion]

Hi

any advice or comments welcome,

about 3 years ago a builder built a block of flats for me and we used NHBC on all of them, shortly after completion it was discovered the builder had made an illegal drainage connection into the neighbours drains without any permission.

My builder refused to put the correct connection in and so at risk of being sued by my neighbour i paid for an immediate connection to be made from my own pocket costing circa £20,000. I have nbeen trying to recover this from my builder who has since gone into administration my question is am i able to make a claim against NHBC for this? As in effect the block was built with out a correct and legal drainage connection .

I look forward to any words of wisdom

thanks in advance

Paul

[Colin Jack]

Paul,

I'm afraid because you were the Client, you are ultimately responsible so there is no real point in chasing anyone else. Unless of course you know exactly who gave the instruction and have it in writing, your Engineer or Agent, but I wish you the best anyway.

Bett Homes tried to pull this stunt on me as well - to drain my back garden. When I asked if they had the necessary permission to add additional drainage to Scottish Water's system... well lets just say I have still had no response and my back garden still ponds. They have accused me of being uncooperative, amonst other things, though.

Better watch what I am saying - they'll set the legal dogs on me again. But that is just my opinion, as is everything I say. Unfortunately the evidence I have collected over the years is not opinion.

[nem39esis]

if you have the NHBC certificate then you may have a case, should have been inspected by the NHBC prior to handing over. Contact them is the first port of call and ask what they would do if theoretically you found that the drain from the building had an illegal connection, see what they say to that and go from there.