Bord Gais Upgrade Works ,Destroyed my garden

Kershaw.D

Hi ,bord gais/clg was doing upgrade works on my street for the last 5 days ,they never told us about the upgrade works or the fact that out gas wouldnt be on.
When I came home from the shop they had doge a big hole blocking my wifes car and my work van in the garden it was going to be blocked in for 5 days so i had to drive it out through the grass ,destroying the grass ,flowers and i had to pull down my tree from my garden to get it out using my neighbours garden
And now im going to have to pay to get both my and my neighbours grass and flowers redone and to fix the fence so I just wanted to know can I make them pay for it ?
Thanks:o

Victor

Did you not ask for a steel plate to be put over the hole?

muffler

Moved from Construction & Planning

Bluetonic

Fact of the matter is you destroyed your own garden, not Bord Gas.

Quint

Why don't you ring up bord gais and complain to them? they take complaints fairly serious

311

Sounds like nonsense

TheDriver

tbh you should have stood your ground and demanded they do something as its a legal/garda matter that they obstructed your driveway but not their problem that you destroyed your garden

cast_iron

Bluetonic wrote: »

Fact of the matter is you destroyed your own garden, not Bord Gas.

Such an argument doesn't carry much weight really.

Supposing someone pulled out in front of you whilst driving along the road, you take evasive action to avoid a collision and end up crashing into a wall.

Fact of the matter is you destroyed your own car, not the other driver.

You see how poor your argument is? Hopefully, I don't need to explain. Your facts may be correct, but misrepresent the situation entirely.

Bluetonic

cast_iron wrote: »

Such an argument doesn't carry much weight really.

Supposing someone pulled out in front of you whilst driving along the road, you take evasive action to avoid a collision and end up crashing into a wall.

Fact of the matter is you destroyed your own car, not the other driver.

You see how poor your argument is? Hopefully, I don't need to explain. Your facts may be correct, but misrepresent the situation entirely.

You have given an odious comparison. Must try harder.

The OP was not forced into destroying their garden.

Lplated

Kershaw.D wrote: »

Hi ,bord gais/clg was doing upgrade works on my street for the last 5 days ,they never told us about the upgrade works or the fact that out gas wouldnt be on.
When I came home from the shop they had doge a big hole blocking my wifes car and my work van in the garden it was going to be blocked in for 5 days so i had to drive it out through the grass ,destroying the grass ,flowers and i had to pull down my tree from my garden to get it out using my neighbours garden
And now im going to have to pay to get both my and my neighbours grass and flowers redone and to fix the fence so I just wanted to know can I make them pay for it ?
Thanks:o

Key thing here is cause and effect.

Assuming you laid out the facts correctly, then
a) they didn't notify you of the work so you couldn't have known to have your van and car somewhere else
b) the hole was dug by the time you realised your vehicles were locked in
c) your only alternative route to getting your vehicles out was in the manner you did
d) this caused damage to both yours and your neighbours properties.

I think your neighbour has a cause of action against you (which you would 'defend' by joining Bord Gas to the case and argue that the damage you caused to the neighbours property was necessitated by An Bord Gais's action.

And you have a cause of action against An Bord Gais because of the cause and effect as between a) and d) above.

It's immaterial whether you asked the workers to put down a metal plate covering the hole or not, it's a matter for them what way they choose to carry out their works.

The damage sounds to me like District Court level damages, but before you got to that level at all you should take photographs of the damage and contact Bord Gas themselves. Its quite likely you will be able to sort the matter out without recourse to lawyers/legal fees etc...

Guy:Incognito

Lplated wrote: »

Key thing here is cause and effect.

Assuming you laid out the facts correctly, then
a) they didn't notify you of the work so you couldn't have known to have your van and car somewhere else
b) the hole was dug by the time you realised your vehicles were locked in
c) your only alternative route to getting your vehicles out was in the manner you did
d) this caused damage to both yours and your neighbours properties.
...

See this is where the arguement falls down. The obvious alternative route for most people would be to ask the lads to help you out and put a metal plate, like you see all the time at these works, over the hole so you can have access.

Pretending they are not there and drivign through your garden is not the way to go about it.

There may well have been a flyer handed around in the past few days tthat got thrown out as junk mail.

311

CLG always put plates down ,I work around these lads regurlarly and have never seen a plate not down/being put down.

There is also no way that an opening would be left for 5 days ,thats complete and utter twaddle. It sounds to me like the op lost the head when he/she seen the hole and instead of organising with the lads to put their plate down first ,drove out of their garden because they had no gas.

cast_iron

Bluetonic wrote: »

The OP was not forced into destroying their garden.

Well not in the same sense as my example, obviously.

But his other option was not to go to work for 5 days due to his inability to use his van. In all sense of practicality, he was forced (purely due to the circumstances created by BG) to destroy his own garden.

Ian Beale

cast_iron wrote: »

But his other option was not to go to work for 5 days due to his inability to use his van. In all sense of practicality, he was forced (purely due to the circumstances created by BG) to destroy his own garden.

He wasn't forced he could have asked them to either put some sort of plate down so it could be driven over or called BG to complain about it which they would have taken very seriously.

cast_iron

He shouldn't have to ask them, they should have done it automatically, without any request - and they didn't.

We don't know if the OP was given a reasonable oppurtunity to make such a request anyway. They may well have been packed and gone by the time he arrived back to find the cars blocked in. If he wanted access to his car right then, he didn't have it, and it was hardly his fault.

In the unlikely situation the were workers there and he never asked them to cover it, then bigger fool him.

TheDriver

call the gardai for obstruction to his property?