Plumbing problems row in court

A woman told a local court that she and her family had no heating in their house for 10 days over last Christmas because of plumbing problems that arose following renovation work.

Danielle Lenehan, Abbey Road, Duleek took a claim at Navan District Court against Thomas Ledwidge, trading as Green Energy Plumbing and Heating, Churchfields, Kentstown for €2,619. The company was not represented in court but had submitted a written statement.

Ms Lenehan told the court that she had had renovations done in the house. The plumber was Tom Ledwidge. There were a number of problems. The main problem lay in when she would try to “fire up” the system and it wouldn’t fire up. “For 10 days I was left without anything at all. When I contacted them there was no response. He did come back to me in the new year”.

However, after a time he (Mr Ledwidge) cut off all contact and she had sent text messages and Whatsapp messages. She had asked him to come to a resolution of the problem. She had also sent him on a quotation she had got so that the problem could be fixed but there was no response.

She had given him until a certain Friday to come back to her but when he did not respond “I had to go ahead and get the work done myself”. She said she had all the details of incurred expenses in court.

Judge Derek Cooney said the company had sent in a written response saying the tank had been damaged and had been removed and water had been fed into Ms Lenehan’s boiler which led to damage of components.

Ms Lenehan replied that it looked like the tank had been temporarily removed but that was not conveyed to her by either the builder or the plumber.

The judge read from Ms Lenehan’s statement, quoting from her message that on 18th December last she had no heating at al. He read that on 29th December “still no heating”.

“Another leak in the downstairs boile,” the judge read. He said he was satisfied that Ms Lenehan had grounds for complaint and asked her what her total outlay had been. She said it was €2,619.

The judge said he would grant her a decree for €2,000 (the maximum allowable under the Small Claims legislation).