Hole drilled in loft roof during installation leaks

[johnnyboyc_uk]

Had broadband installed a few months ago; in order to facilitate the use of the router in my loft office, a hole was drilled through the inside wall and through a roof tile.

Last night, when it rained heavily, I noticed that water was ingressing through the junction box installed by the Virgin engineer.  I also noticed that a previous rainfall/leakage has stained the wall around the junction box, and is most likely damaged internally as well.

In addition to this, the leak was directly over a mains extension block, and water was falling on it.  This could have been fairly catastrophic, but fortunately I was at home to avert potential disaster.

I'd like to know what can be done about this?  I've plonked some sealant myself on the outside hole, because it needed sorted out PDQ, and that seems to have sorted it out for now.

However, I'm not at all happy about the stained/damaged wall and the potential fire hazard that this leak introduced.

[goslow]

The property damage topics like this that make their way onto here usually either describe it being impossible to get a response from VM or, when VM does respond, just keeping the customer in an endless round of back and forward communication between VM and/or repair sub-contractors with no actual repairing taking place.

I don't think that the formal arbitration processes for VM deal with claims for property damage. The ADR scheme for VM is with

https://www.commsombudsman.org/

You could contact them to ask if they deal with property damage issues. If they did, then you would have to complain to VM first of all (a required first step) before referring on to arbitration via a deadlock letter or after 8 weeks from when you first complained.

If the ADR route does not deal with property damage you would need to make a small claim to recover costs for the repair. You would need to get estimates in for the work and also give VM a time-limited opportunity to fix the damage.

Your best route for all of the above would be to contact Citizens Advice for the best way to proceed. They should be clued up on the fine detail of the consumer law to tell you exactly the steps you need to take to get the damage fixed.

[johnnyboyc_uk]

I have submitted a complaint to VM, let's see what they say (if anything).

Thanks for that, very useful indeed.

[Sabrina_B]

Hi @johnnyboyc_uk 👋.

Thanks for reaching out to us. Apologies for the incident with the leak. Have you since raised a complaint for this, you can do so here 👉 https://virg.in/makacomp. If you face any issues, you can reach out to me via private message. 

Please look out for the envelope on the top right of your web browser or if you are using a mobile device, it will be located under your profile icon.

Thanks.

Sabrina