Who's responsible

He does, he should have full insurance to cover this sort of thing.

The only way he could come at you for the repair cost is if you stated that there were no services in the vicinity of the area being dug out, even then he should have checked with a CAT scan.

 

He should be able to claim it on his insurance I would have thought.

 

If he is insured...

 

No.

 

It should come under his public liability insurance.

 

Would it be PLI or professional indemnity, just asking?

 

What mains cable has he hit, if its just your house supply you may be covered by your household insurance, they will then chase him for all costs, this will cost him many times more than if he put his hand in his pocket and paid for the repair directly.

 

It could be, but ain't these sort of things included in public liability insurance, i know mine covers damage to a third patries property, the excess is high though to dissuade from claiming for minor damages.

 

??????, I've got to say, its a strange question to ask then, seem you don't have much faith in your builders.

 

My PLI includes professional indemnity but it is a seperate clause.

 

Not wrong. You can always ask the potential builder to show proof of insurance before commencement.

Mr. HandyAndy - Really

 

Not at all, but all service checks should be carried out long before any digging out commences, so there's no chance of accidents happening.

Having said that I took out an 11000 volt main cable in a garden centre once with a JCB, we had all services marked out by the relevant service providers, only the leccy board were 2 metres out in their marking out, guess who had to pay that bill, no not me.

 

£5 000 000 is about £150 for a chippie, groundworks may be more.

 

Sounds like your outlook on life is that your glass is half empty rather than half full!