NHBC Plumbing problem

[MrsBod]

Hi going to be a long thread so bear with me please.

I'm not sure if anyone can help me, i rent a 4 year old 1st floor flat which i have lived in for 3 and a half years. We have always had problems with drainage issues which we always believe to the drains blocking in the shower. The water slowly drains away in our shower so we told our landlord about it after we realised it wasn't going away. He sent a plumber round to look at the shower as we believed the trap to be blocked. The plumber removed the trap which wasn't blocked so went on to look at the waste pipe at the bottom of the sink. There is no access to any of the pipes so he had to break tiles in order to gain access to the pipework in the bathroom, upon doing this he had to break a couple more tiles to get the sink pedastal off as the builder had sealed it to the tiles. He had to turn the isolators on the copper piping in order remove the pipes so no water came through. When he did this the pipe burst as their was a weak point on the pipe. He tried turning the stopcock off to turn the water off but this failed to work also so had to go to meter outside to shut the water off. Once i had turned the water off we had a proper look at the pipework and discovered the reason as to why 1. the pipe burst because of their being a weak point in copper piping and also isolator was faulty and 2. the reason for the slow drainage was in fact the plastic waste pipes were flowing in an upward direction not the 1 in 10 fall like the regaulation should state!

We have since taken pictures of the pipes and sent them to our landlord who contacted Bellways and explained what the issue was with the pipes and also at the fact that the stopcock failed to work which no one had touched since it was built. Bellways wrote back saying 'the pipework must have dropped after completion as it was signed off'. This is not the case as the pipework was fixed to the sink and shower so there is no way it can drop. We have since had 2 other plumbers come and looked at it and said the same thing that it was just put in incorrectly when it was built. Also when the pipe burst the water ran through into the flat below and was flowing out of their ceiling, lights, wall sockets and walls when really if their is a leak it should run through the cavity and out not through the property below.

The last plumber asked to look at the soil waste pipe so i shown him it was in the kitchen but again it was all boxed in with no access as such apart from taking the underskirting out from under the kitchen units. What we saw next was shocking!!! There is a massive (1mtr in diameter by about 50cm) hole in the floor where all the pipes and electrical calbes just disappear off into! The soilw waste trap is an open trap which has masking tape round it to hold it together, the pipework to the kitchen sink hits the floor then goes up in direction to about 20 degrees in this so called trap. There is no fire proofing, insulation or anything seperating us from the flat below and this hole just goes straight through to probably their floor and under. The washine machine pipes (which again Bellway put in) just sit on the floor and travel into this hole and we get smells and sound from the flat below.

Again i took pictures of this and sent it to our landlord who sent it off to nhbc and to Bellways. NHBC are refusing to come round and investigate, Bellways are refusing to do anything about either of the problems as they say it was signed off when it couldnt of been as it is all boxed in and we know it breaches the regulations. We are getting the council round tomorrow to also have a look at it to try and agree with all of the others to say it is a builders problem not the fault of our landlords.

Can someone please help us and advise how we go about getting both Bellway and NHBC to 1. come and actually look at the pipework and damage and floor and 2. How we can get it sorted as they are denying all knowledge that it is a builders issue.

Sorry another thing to add we had a company which Bellway sent in a year and a half ago to change the valves and seals on our magiflow boiler as they didnt comply with regulation which at the time they agreed with, now Bellway deny all knowledge thatthey ever sent the company in! I believe the guy that replaced all the valves and seals on the boilder and pipework to the boiler must of done something wrong in order for the stopcock to fail.

[SteveF]

Hi MrsBod

Unfortunately as the house is 4 years old neither the builder nor the NHBC will do anything to rectify the problem.
The builder is only liable to rectify defects or non compliances with NHBC standards where that defect has been identified and issued to the builder within the first 2 years after the NHBC insurance cover note was issued. The NHBC warranty for years 3-10 does not give any cover for defects such as these.

The situation which you describe is all too common unfortunately and you will find may such complaints on this forum.

This problem should rest with your landlord to rectify!

SteveF