Am I entitled to a discount as plumber identified the wrong issue?

[Paulk]

Hi All,

I would be grateful for some advice on the following. I recently noticed a leak in the hall of our apartment coming from the hot press. I called a plumber to investigate the issue. He said that the problem was due to my hot water cylinder and that it would need to be replaced due to leakage which usually happens after 10 - 15 years. The total cost was €550.

However, a few days later, I noticed that the leak had not gone away and called my plumber again. He came back with a colleague to look at the problem. After searching for half an hour, one of the plumbers suggested that the problem is with a pipe that goes underground. He then capped it and told me to call him back in 2 days to see if the leaking stopped.

The leaking has now stopped indicating that the issue was with the pipe and not the cylinder.

I am just wondering is the plumber now entitled to charge me for fixing the piping problem, considering that he identified the wrong issue and I had to pay €550 for a cylinder which essentially I did not need?

I believe he made an honest mistake initially. He said that 99% of the time, when a leak comes from the hot press, it is because of cylinder or tank.

Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks

 

[davidoco]

hot water cylinder and that it would need to be replaced due to leakage which usually happen after 10 - 15 years. The total cost was €550.

How old was the cylinder he took out. It was probably a blessing to replace a 15 year old copper cylinder although a low pressure copper cylinder should work longer but I suspect in an apartment you have a pressurised copper cylinder which would not be expected to last any more than 10 years.

 

[Paulk]

Hi David,

Thanks for reply. Yes, the cylinder was at least 10 years old. I'm not sure whether or not it was pressurised though - I'm not familiar with these things.