Botched Openreach Broadband Install Floods Pensioner’s Kent Home
Network operator Openreach (BT) has said it’s “very sorry for the distress” after one of its engineers accidentally drilled through a water pipe during the installation of a new broadband service, which flooded the house of a 93-year-old pensioner (Dylis Forsyth) in Kent (England). Ms Forsyth ended up slipping on the wet carpet the next day and badly injuring her hand.
According to Kent Online (see for pictures), the work took place on 11th April last week, but it wasn’t long before water began to flood into the house – soaking carpets, flooring and other items on the floor. The engineer frantically tried to stop it by looking for the stopcock, but Ms Forsyth noted “it had not been turned off because it was buried under tarmac” (it’s unclear if this is a recent or historic decision).
The problem was only brought under control after a neighbour managed to tie up the ballcock in her water tank. Openreach promptly arranged for an emergency plumber to repair the pipe the same day, but by then the damage to her property had already been done. By the next day the house was starting to stink due to mould and bacteria growth within the wet floor, which was not something Ms Forsyth could tackle herself due to limited mobility.
Advertisement
Shortly after this the pensioner ended up slipping on the wet floor and badly injuring her hand. Dylis is now said to require daily visits from a specialist to treat her wound. In response, Openreach and retail ISP partner BT initially appeared to deflect requests for them to repair the property damage, instead suggesting that it should be billed to home insurance. But they later pledged to “resolve” the damage.
A Spokesperson for Openreach said:
“We are very sorry for the distress caused to Ms Forsyth and her family.
During planned fibre upgrade work on Friday, our engineer accidentally damaged a water pipe inside the property.
The engineer reported this immediately, and we arranged for an emergency plumber to attend the same day.
We are in direct contact with Ms Forsyth’s daughter and have arranged further repairs, with a site visit taking place on Wednesday (April 15).
Given Ms Forsyth’s age and circumstances, we have escalated this internally to make sure the right support is in place, and the home is made safe as quickly as possible.
We will continue working closely with the family until everything is resolved.”
We’ve rarely seen situations as bad as this, but they do crop up from time to time. The responsibility for repairing such damage typically rests with the network operator and Openreach has a process in place that pledges to “put it right” (here).
The operator should often then cover any reasonable costs to restore the property to its original condition (make sure to document everything and take plenty of pictures, video etc.), but in practice getting an operator to do this can sometimes be a challenge. The issue should also be reported to your retail ISP as they’re the contract holder and will manage the complaint.
However, despite the commitment, the family remains frustrated that it took media attention before Openreach seemed to act, and they’ve said they “will be pushing them to take accountability for the injuries sustained and seeking legal advice“.
Advertisement
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
« Nexfibre Invest £2.9m to Upgrade 18,000 Homes in Darlington to Full Fibre
I don’t think a device exists that enables broadband engineers to detect water pipes. They’ve got one for internal electrical wiring, but not for water I don’t believe.
Stud sensors with pipe-scanning capabilities, thermal imaging (sometimes), using your ears and various other methods..
The good one can costs +£200, it is cheaper to get an insurance. “In response, Openreach and retail ISP partner BT initially appeared to deflect requests for them to repair the property damage, instead suggesting that it should be billed to home insurance. But they later pledged to “resolve” the damage.” – an absolute joke.
The issue these days is a lot of water pipes are plastic and should either have a copper trace wire or be laid over aluminium marker tape.
If the trace wire or the tape is missing, or in the wrong place, the stud detector won’t see it, (I punched through a plastic radiator feed curled up inside a wall that was no where near the marker tape).
If it was a contractor, they have their own insurance and damage reporting systems so it may be that Openreach were not aware of this straight away.
Plastic water pipes cannot be located with the hidden services detector provided, the hidden services sector provided also states in the documentation from the manufacturer that it should not be relied upon as a sole means of detection, which tells you how reliable the manufacturer thinks it is.
Works for copper pipes… in theory.
Plastic pipes, good luck.
Sounds like they were a bunch of cowboys
Open reach.BT.and EE.NOY SO much a bunch of COWBOYS more a bunch of ZOMBIES
Was it an actual Openreach fitter or one of their subcontractors? From what I have seen of the subcontractors tend to give their fitters the bare minimum of training and throw them out on the road so it’s no wonder incidents like this happen. The guy who did mine from Kellys had previously been an office employee at Honda in Swindon and had no experience in this field. The term engineer by the way is often misused. To be an engineer is regarded as a white collar job and usually requires degree level education.
“Engineer” isn’t a protected title in the the UK.
Though there are a few specific, professional engineering roles that are protected under Royal Charter by the Engineering council
https://www.engc.org.uk/professional-registration/our-professional-titles
With millions of installs every year, something bad is always going to happen. I don’t blame the engineer unless they were really careless. But Openreach should be bending over backwards to make things right. The story is a bit one sided given the family are the ones providing the story. But it does sound like Openreach are dragging their heels and trying to minimise costs.
Good old Kelly communications or MJ Quinns cause damage everyday . Just this one has been reported to the press. Openreach will never learn their lesson from using these cowboy engineer . Accidents happen but not to this extent
“Given Ms Forsyth’s age and circumstances, we have escalated this internally to make sure the right support is in place, and the home is made safe as quickly as possible.”
As unfortunate and devastating this incident is for the lady, Openreach should commit to addressing any damage like this as quickly as possible regardless of the customer’s age.
Bad news for Ms Forsyth and let’s hope she makes a full recovery.
However it’s not credible that by “the next day the house was starting to stink due to mould and bacteria growth within the wet floor” as this takes days to happen.
In me previous job I would make visits to houses of all types. Quite often I see homes with elderly, usually single, people where the heating is set high. Couple that with the possibility of old, well trodden carpets and you get the perfect environment once you add water.
Maybe visible bacterial growth may take a few days, the smell is entirely believable. I know from first hand experience.
I am sick of companies instructing people to claim on their home insurance.
For reference, BT, MY home insurance is to cover for MY liability. If YOU fuck up then YOUR insurance is to cover for YOUR liability. MY premiums should not be affected by YOUR mistakes.
Indeed. And, much like car insurance, a claim via that route may well lead to automated risk assessment systems increasing the premium (or even refusing to provide cover) at renewal time even though the policyholder had no responsibility for the damage and the entire costs were subsequently recovered from the responsible party.
It’s a risk the occupant would be mad to take on board.
Plus, they might have chosen to self-insure a water damage risk. If you’re unmortgaged and with adequate savings, it’s not an unreasonable choice.
I hope Mrs Forsyth’s house is made safe and repaired as promptly as possible. But I also do hope if her daughter decides to take legal action then it would be defended by Openreach robustly. If the engineer reported the problem immediately, then that’s the only thing they can do. It’s always fix the immediate problem (water leak), work out the repairs and compensation later. Seems the daughters determined to turn the honest mistake into something more.
In this situation, call your insurance company, let their legal department deal with the offending company, in this case OR will find it difficult to ignore them.
In fairness, drilling a pipe it’s pretty rare, I think the lesson here is before drilling, find out where the shut of valve is, and check if operating correctly.
Unfortunate for everyone concerned.
I can well imagine the streetside stop being covered, but it would be an unusual plumbing set-up if there were no internal stopcock! But I suppose if the building is as old as the resident then it might still be possible.
Regarding the smell. The leak was caused by drilling into the central heating radiator’s inflow or return pipe. So I’m guessing the smell is more likely that sludgy, metallic smell you get when emptying your central heating system rather than any mould smell. So well done the neighbour who tied the header tank ballcock up… and presumably not the cold water storage tank for the hot water system!
The central heating pipes being in the wall (mine are) is a bit of a nightmare. Mine, I know, go straight up from behind the centre of the rads (in most cases anyway!). So I can only think the engineer assumed the concealed pipes went straight up from a 90-degree elbow. Except they didn’t… they turned 90 degrees right for about 2.5 ft and then 90 degrees up to the ceiling space in the corner of the room.
I also presume the engineer thought the wiring from the adjacent wall’s double-gang electrical socket went straight up (it should). But if it was a spur that had been put in (maybe DIY in the day), then they might not.
We all ‘know’ it is best not to assume when drilling anywhere, especially near known electrical or central heating runs. But I do. But then I’m not an engineer. And hindsight is a wonderful thing. So, if it doesn’t already exist, then maybe a change to the SOP guidelines for engineers is needed and a box on their checklist to tick they’ve checked for pipes and electrics prior to any drilling.
Accidents happen, but it’s how companies deal with them that’s the issue. And telling a householder to claim on their own insurance is not a good start!
I’m willing to bet this customer didn’t ask for FTTP