Fencer is ruining the utilities - who pays

[nats12]

Here's an interesting one for you. I have a fencer doing some work on a reno I'm doing. Yesterday he was digging a hole to put in a pole and managed to dig through the gas line and storwater drain pipe at the same time.

I have no idea the repair bill but I told them to direct the bill to the fencing company.

Then today I get a call as he continues his work - he's dug through the water pipe today! I rang the fence company and they said bad luck, not our issue. I've got my plumber going out to fix the issue, but they are saying I have to pay.

In their terms and conditions it says all care and no responsibility taken.

Has anyone experienced anything like this? I haven't paid the fencer yet and am planning to withhold payment based on the damage they have done. I may be willing to split the cost but I am not willing to pay for something that they have ruined by lack of attention. Thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[boomtown]

In New Zealand they have "Dial before you dig" which is an information service specifically to prevent this sort of incident.

I would expect that as part of their "all care" obligation under the contract they would have called the Australian equivalent of this number.

 

[pawprints]

They have the same "Dial before you dig' service here too. We did all that and got the information sent to us from the various utilities when we put our fence up.

We hit our gas line, where according to the gas sheet, it shouldn't have been. The gas plumbers came out and fixed it and made a note on their sheet that we had done the right thing and "Dial before you dug!" and therefore we didn't get charged as the sheet was wrong.

Having said that we put the fence in ourselves so I'm not sure who's responsibility it is to check that out before they begin the work. I'm pretty sure it's you that is meant to dial up and get the info and present it to the contractors.

 

[knightm]

It may be worth a phone call to Dept of Fair Trading and/or the Ombudsman if you think things are going to get nasty. They can probably give you advice on how to proceed.

In any event keep records of all events and communications - make your requests in writing and take notes of anything the fencer says (so you have at lease in your own writing that he admitted to the damage) he probably wont offer to give you any admissions in writing but if it ended up in a tribunal etc all your records will be vital.

 

[harb]

why split the costs with him, is he splitting his profits with you ?
I'd wait for him to finish the fence and just take it out of his bill. If he doesn't like it he can take you to the small claims tribunal or whatever. Helps to have the description of repairs on your receipts and some pics to show the magistrate, if it ever gets that far.

 

[depreciator]

That's pretty unlucky - stormwater, gas and water all under the one fenceline. He'll be telling his mates about that one.
Fencing contractors play pretty rough, nats. I've met a few and I wouldn't want to tangle with them. You may be in the right, but be prepared to swallow it. Department of Fair Trading might back you up, but they won't be there if someone up one night and accidently backs into your new fence.
On the brightside, at least you now know exactly where your stormwater, gas and water pipes are

Scott

 

[nats12]

thanks for the feedback. because they play nasty and i know that, i'm willing to come to the party and pay part of the cost of damage. It's a tax deduction anyway I guess. I just can not say that I should pay for all of it. My initial stance will be i'm withholding total damages cost from them. then we'll see how it progresses.

I have called dial before you dig recently becuase of some excavation work that we did (my contractor actually was nice enough to do it for me!) but the gas people could only say yes there's assets, not where they were. The water info as well only showed water assets outside the property, not within. So that was pretty fruitless in getting the information.

 

[units4me]

most fencer have on their fine print, no responsibility for this type of thing.
Fencers work on very lean margins for very hard work. Sure, they should try their best to avoid underground services, but sometimes it happens. Read the contract and don't try to stiff the tradesman.

 

[Tools]

Fencers usually have something on their quote that says if you don't locate the underground services, then they take no responsibility. If you as the owner don't know they are there, how can the fencer who is on your property for a few hours ? They are digging post holes, not doing an archaelogical dig with a tea spoon and a feather. Fencers work on low rates per metre as it is, so don't try to shaft him when it isn't his fault.

Tools

 

[f4j]

Are they supposed to be digging by hand? How could the fencer know?

 

[Ausprop]

thanks for the feedback. because they play nasty and i know that, i'm willing to come to the party and pay part of the cost of damage. It's a tax deduction anyway I guess. I just can not say that I should pay for all of it. My initial stance will be i'm withholding total damages cost from them. then we'll see how it progresses.

I have called dial before you dig recently becuase of some excavation work that we did (my contractor actually was nice enough to do it for me!) but the gas people could only say yes there's assets, not where they were. The water info as well only showed water assets outside the property, not within. So that was pretty fruitless in getting the information.

had a similar thing with a builder once who dug up next doors telephone line that was laid on our property. a whole lot of blabber mouthing and 'you should dial before you dig' and defences from the builder... what a pain.

oh that's right... the builder said that if the demo guys had scraped the block properly the problem would have come to light then, which only served to bring up the painful memory of how the demo guys had buried half the refuse in the front yard and I had to pay to re-excavate it. save the workers unite speech for another day - demo guys need to be watched like hawks

 

[fernfurn]

Hate to tell you this, but the gas bill will be nasty. Hit a gas line about 3 mths ago in Melb. Hubbie dug out all around it, so had it totally exposed when they arrived (2 of them in an enormous truck) took 15 mins to fix the leak, and charged $400. I complained bitterly and the chap said, oh they have to trace the leak, and dig it all out, I said all that had been done and they finally reduced it to about $250. My guess is it is a standard fee.

 

[Perp]

Hate to tell you this, but the gas bill will be nasty .... charged $400. ... they finally reduced it to about $250.

We obviously have different ideas as to what constitutes "nasty"; if they'd told me $400 I would have been so relieved I couldn't have paid them quick enough!

 

[fernfurn]

I consider $400 for 15 mins work highway robbery. One of my arguments for reducing the bill was that a plumber would have charged roughly$150 but we werent allowed to use an ordinary plumber we had to use the gas company's one. Plus, add the cost of fixing the stormwater and water pipes and that makes one hell of an expensive fence