Extension built over a gas pipe

[mandyp]

Hi

We've lived in our current house for 5 years, it has an extension (which we didn't build).

We've had a letter from the Gas maintenance company, which we think has resulted from our neighbours extension. It seems that their builder burst a gas pipe.

Apparently our extension has been built on top of the gas pipe. We had no idea as we didn't build the extension. They now want to re-route the pipe and charge us for it.

We're not sure how this will go, but I wondered if anyone had any experience of a similar type of thing.

I don't know how we're expected to pay for it, we've also had all the garden landscaped and I can only assume we'd be liable for paying for any resulting work on our garden.

It's a nightmare, we've tried to contact the council as we assumed that the former owner wouldn't have got planning permission to build over a gas pipe. However the council advise us that it's nothing to do with them.

We've no idea what to expect and I just wondered if anyone had any ideas?

I had no idea where to post this, but figured 'building' seemed as good a place as any.

Thanks

 

[noseall]

you should not build over a gas main.

it will have to either be re-routed around the building or the gas meter set to the new outside wall.

either way you will have to pay.

i doubt whether you can claim your money back from the people who had the extension built, but curse them anyway.

 

[noseall]

p.s nowt to do with the council, just you and the gas company.

 

[^woody^]

I'm not familiar with the legislation or the authority of the gas supplier with regards to this. Ask them for their specific authority to require the main to be moved at your cost

But check you house insurance, which may provide cover in these circumstances.

Depending on how far you may want to pursue this, but either the councils building control section has failed to inspect the work, or the previous owner has done something illegal which you could not have known about. Also if you had a survey done when you purchased, the company should perhaps have highlighted this.

If you have a legal advice service with your insurance, then ask them a few questions

 

[mandyp]

Thanks!

I'll contact a few people, but suspect since we only got a basic survey rather than a structural one we'll be stuffed.

I would have thought the council would be inspecting the work as it went along, but they're denying any liability.

The other panic I have is cost.....frankly we don't have the money to pay for it!!! I'm also not sure how that works.

We've had problems previously with a water pipe under the extension, fortunately our house insurance dealt with that, however it needed access via my neighbours garden. That resulted in arguments with the neighbour (who caused the guys doing the work to down tools for 2 days). I dread to think what will happen with this!!

 

[noseall]

i once asked a b.c. officer about a gas main passing through the foundation trench and into what would be the new extension.

he said "oh you need to sleeve it to prevent any probs with differential movement".

i reminded him that a gas main should not be built over and he shrugged his shoulders. ho hum.

the man of the house returned from work later that day and spotted the pipe. he works for a utilities installer and immediately cursed when he saw the pipe and said it would need to be moved.

an architect i know well insists that it is illegal to build over a gas main.

on another recent job a gas main turned up through the middle of a found's dig. the gas company were informed, fees paid and a crew were sent out.
they didn't route the gas main around the building but threaded a new yellow plastic pipe up the old steel pipe.

i questioned this and stated that the pipe is still under the building?

the crew said it's ok as long as the pipe is effectively sleeved in steel.

you tell me?????!

 

[IJWS15]

We built an extension a few years ago, moved several times since.


Gas meter was in the old coal shed at the back of the house that was being demolished. Wanted it in the new garage.

Gas board came out and moved the meter, they were a little puzzled by the request to put it on the outside wall of the house (would be inside the new garage when built) but did not question that the pipe would run 8 feet under the garage before it came up through the floor!

Is that illegal then?

Parents used to live in a house with the meter under the stairs, about 25 feet from the front of the house. Gas board wanted to move it because it was under the stairs, not because the pipe ran under the house.

They refused and AFAIK the meter is still under the stairs and the house has not blown up in 150 years it has had gas.

Illegal????

 

[mandyp]

It would appear that we're liable. We did have free legal advice with our insurance policy. The lawyer has advised that we're liable for any cost regardless of whether we built the extension or not.

The guy from the gas company came out yesterday and said they have no idea where the pipe is going (it'll just be a case of digging!!)

He also doesn't know where to put it, but now wants the meter moved to the outside of the house. I'm assuming since this will be the opposite side of my house, I'll no longer have my gas fire/cooker connected. My floors in the original house are all concrete.

Why it has to go outside is a mystery. I know that new houses have a meter outside, but my house is over 50 years old. So I'm unsure why it needs to be moved and can't help feel that they're trying to overcomplicate the job to squeeze more money out of us.

He has said that the builders may not have seen the pipe, the council wouldn't have seen it and that they don't know where it is either!! To be honest I'm finding it increasingly frustrating that we'll be held liable for something that apparently nobody knows anything about!!

In light of the info we got, under no circumstances should anything be built over a gas main.......but at the same time it also appears that when you buy a house you have no idea if it's happened and no way to check since nobody else knows either......utterly ridiculous I think

 

[noseall]

the reason the gas company do not want you to build over the main is simply so that they have easy access to their pipes.

 

[IJWS15]

You can allways try arguing with them, in the case of my parents (see above) the Gas Board Inspector insisted that they moved the meter into the porch just inside the front door (to be on wall above door - Victorian semi with V. high ceilings) - My mother said the meter reader would have to bring his own ladder to read it as she would not provide one, his next idea was to put it in a free standing meter box in the garden - her counter was that it was a consservation area and would have to be in matching brick (victorian clay bricks not avaialble now) and they would have to get planning permission. He backed down and the meter stayed where it was!

At one stage they started to dig a trench saying that the yellow "E" chalked on the inside of her garden wall was their "E for Excavate" - she stopped them and pointed out that when the E was chalked on the brick it was built into a house about a mile away that had recently been demolished - wall was built in second hand brick!

 

[rangersman]

the reason the gas company do not want you to build over the main is simply so that they have easy access to their pipes.

Would it not be fair then for the gasco to have an easement over the alignment that would show up in the title

 

[LM1980]

please read gas safe registers technical bulletin 003, link below for PDF.

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rc...m-SfDQ&usg=AFQjCNGslLwIU17tGaQ8VSCP5jhfLbEyLw

no you can not and nor can the meter be within the new extension. read the technical bulletin 003 for all the details.