Eon left a leak after it fitted my new boiler and the ceiling fell in

My wife and I paid £3,800 for a new boiler to be installed by Eon Next in our bungalow in January 2022.

However, the installer left behind a leaking joint which, due to the boiler being in the loft, wasn’t noticed for some time. It flooded part of the loft and also brought down part of the ceiling.

Eon sent someone to fix the leak, but I have not been able to get the company to pay me for the damage to be repaired.

We had contractors in to assess the damage, including two independent contractors and two from Eon.

In September 2022, I was told by Eon that a settlement of £2,580 had been reached, but I have never received the money. I email every week but don’t hear back.

I am in poor health and this is causing me stress. Can you help? A.H, via email

Helen Crane replies: How unfortunate that this small error by a boiler fitter has left you in such hot water. 

For most a leaky boiler would be quickly spotted, but you live in a bungalow and so the unit was located in the attic. 

This meant it was left to drip away undetected for some time – long enough that the resulting puddle brought down a section of your ceiling. 

It is fair to say that your frustrations with Eon have reached boiling point. You say you have exchanged 65 emails with the firm since the problem started, more than one a week.

Initially, you say you were told you needed to get quotes from two repair firms so that Eon could decide how much to pay you for the damage to your ceiling and loft. 

You say you sent these, along with pictures of the damage – though Eon says you only provided one quote. 

Eon then also sent two of its own contractors to your home to further assess what had happened. 

What happened next is where yours and the energy firm’s stories start to differ.  

Eon told you it wanted to send a third person to your home. You and your wife say you were under the impression that this person was simply there to get a third quote for the repairs, which you felt was excessive.

You say the stress of going back and forth was getting to you, so much that your doctor had increased your medication, and you were unwilling to go through the rigmarole of having someone else inspect your home when four contractors had already done so. That seems a reasonable response to me.

However, Eon says that the third person it wanted to send to your home – which you didn’t agree to – was actually going to repair the damage to the ceiling, not just provide another quote. Your refusal, it says, it what has delayed the process for so long.

There are clearly two sides to this story, and it seems there has been some miscommunication between yourself and Eon about who would carry out the work and when.

But it doesn’t seem right to me that it would take more than a year for this problem to be fixed – especially when the blame for the original leak lay with Eon.

Checking it out: A.H says the damage to his home was assessed by four contractors, though Eon says it was only three (stock image) 

You say you were told several months ago in September that that a sum of £2,580 had been agreed for the repairs, and yet it still never turned up in your account. 

Even if you did knowingly refuse entry to Eon’s contractor, I don’t understand why the money could not have been paid to you there and then, so that you could arrange for the problem to be sorted yourself. 

It’s your home, and it’s your right to choose who carries out work on it.

I imagine it is cheaper for Eon to use its own contractor to fix your ceiling, than it is to hand you the cash. But even the £2,580 sum promised to you was decided by Eon, based on the quotes – and not by you. 

Given it sent its own repair people to your house, it can’t claim you are trying to get more than you are owed. 

Besides, Eon’s most recent results show that it made £3.5billion in profits in the first half of last year, so I don’t think £2,580 should be too much of a problem.

Eon said a further reason for the delay was that your wife had not given it her bank details, though you say she did.

Again, your version of events and Eon’s differ on this. But I am inclined to believe you when I remember that, all this time, you were staring at a sizeable hole in your ceiling every day. 

I think that would serve as a pretty good reminder to send over your bank account details, should it have slipped your mind. 

The back and forth I had between you and Eon over this flooding fracas left my head in a spin, so I can only imagine how you and your wife feel. 

After I got in touch, I am glad to report that Eon has now ensured it has your details and promised the money will be in your account in between five and 21 days.

A spokesperson for Eon said: ‘We advised [the customer] that we would need three independent quotes for the cost of any repair work but she only obtained one.

‘However, we have proceeded to try and resolve this complaint by instructing our own contractors to assess the property and provide a quote, but when we went to carry out the repairs [the customer] refused to grant us access to the property which has delayed the process. 

‘We agreed to pay the sum of the original quote to [the customer], but this process was delayed as she did not give us her bank details. Now we have the necessary details, we have begun the transfer.’

Hopefully, your ceiling can now get mended and you can move on.