Hi Guys,
I've got myself into a situation and would appreciate your thoughts.
I will give you some back ground information first. I live in a small block of villa units with no body corporate. The reason for this is because all units have a separate drive way, front garden, nature strip, guttering etc, however there is a common stormwater drain and sewerage system that runs down the back of all units.
We all maintain our own units, eg paint our own windows, mow our own lawns.
Recently I experienced flooding from one of my down pipes, I contacted a plumber, thinking it would be an easy fix job, no dramas, pay for the work myself.
I was told that the blockage was infact in a shared stormwater pipe, but the blockage was on my neighbours property and he couldn't fix it. So it is a shared pipe but the blockage is on the neighbours side of the fence. Hope this makes sense.
This is when the problems began. I told my neighbour and he denied everything.
Sent me a letter full of lies and said there was no such blockage. The letter was mental!!!
So I found a really specialized plumber with high tech equipment who diagnosed that the blockage was in the neighbours property and recorded everything with CCTV on DVD etc. I had to do this because of the letter. I
needed proof.
The plumbers askes if he can try and unblock the blockage from my neigbours property but is denied access by the neigbour's tenents ( They were specially told not to let a plumber on the property). My only option at this stage was to send the plumber home or go ahead and break pipes on my property and unblock the pipe that way. I was experiencing major flooding when it rained and was over the whole situation!!
At the end of the day I had a massive bill which I ended up paying. Is there anything I can do?
PS I know the usual thing would be to get a quote first and get the neighbour to pay half or some of the cost but for this type of situation the plumber needed to do work before he could find the problem and my neighbour was in total denial.
Thanks for any feedback.
I've got myself into a situation and would appreciate your thoughts.
I will give you some back ground information first. I live in a small block of villa units with no body corporate. The reason for this is because all units have a separate drive way, front garden, nature strip, guttering etc, however there is a common stormwater drain and sewerage system that runs down the back of all units.
We all maintain our own units, eg paint our own windows, mow our own lawns.
Recently I experienced flooding from one of my down pipes, I contacted a plumber, thinking it would be an easy fix job, no dramas, pay for the work myself.
I was told that the blockage was infact in a shared stormwater pipe, but the blockage was on my neighbours property and he couldn't fix it. So it is a shared pipe but the blockage is on the neighbours side of the fence. Hope this makes sense.
This is when the problems began. I told my neighbour and he denied everything.
Sent me a letter full of lies and said there was no such blockage. The letter was mental!!!
So I found a really specialized plumber with high tech equipment who diagnosed that the blockage was in the neighbours property and recorded everything with CCTV on DVD etc. I had to do this because of the letter. I
needed proof.
The plumbers askes if he can try and unblock the blockage from my neigbours property but is denied access by the neigbour's tenents ( They were specially told not to let a plumber on the property). My only option at this stage was to send the plumber home or go ahead and break pipes on my property and unblock the pipe that way. I was experiencing major flooding when it rained and was over the whole situation!!
At the end of the day I had a massive bill which I ended up paying. Is there anything I can do?
PS I know the usual thing would be to get a quote first and get the neighbour to pay half or some of the cost but for this type of situation the plumber needed to do work before he could find the problem and my neighbour was in total denial.
Thanks for any feedback.
