UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hello

I am new here. I am a tenant on a private country estate, which is lovely but does come with some quirks. I hit one, literally a couple of weeks ago. Digging over a flower bed, my fork went into the domestic oil pipe, i didn't notice at the time. I noticed the smell, and it was vague, but reported it, and the plumber came around, and after being sceptical about there being a leak, he did find it. My dilemma is I was responsible for damaging the pipe, but the plumber/boiler expert pointed out it was only buried 4 inches underground, not the regulation 17 inches. It was not protected by any kind of barrier. The upshot is I have lost approximately £200.00 of fuel because of this leak. I have no expectation that my landlord will offer any kind of compensation, but is it all my fault? I would like a landlords view of this. It did break regulations, and I was just trying to keep the garden tidy. Thank you for any replies. Sessi.

Regardless of 'fault', the landlord may reasonably ask: "How do I know that it was £200 of fuel that you lost?"

You say 'approximately', but how can you tell?  The landlord would expect you to inflate any guess you make. I'm not saying that you have done so, but it would be the natural tendency.

I'd approach the landlord politely and point out that the pipe was not adequately buried and no warning was given to you. Then, when they refuse, I'd push for an amicable 50/50 split on the fuel cost.


£200 of fuel is currently about 200 litres. That's a lot to soak into the ground. There must now be a large volume of contaminated soil - what does the landlord say about dealing with that?

I know nothing about oil pipes.

But I do know something about the nature of regulations and the time that something was done (installed). If the regulations state that an oil pipe should be 45cm deep now (all well and good) - but has that regulation been in place for a long time... and before the pipe was placed into the ground?

If the pipe is 20 years old (don't bark at me, I know nothing) and the regulations at the time were more lenient, or even vague, on the depth... new regulations coming along in 2020 (just an illustrative example) might not be retrospectively authoritative.

Possibly worth checking. Otherwise the simple question would be - why wasn't it installed to meet regulations? If done by any kind of professional then you'd think it would be... so maybe it wasn't because it wasn't necessary (at the time)?

Likewise, even if made aware of the existence of an oil pipe... it really shouldn't be "stabbable" by a gardening fork... that's just asking for trouble... so the common sense aspect of this is very much on your side.