PLUMBER & EXORBITANT WATER BILL

On one fine day in May 2013, I noticed that there was water gushing out from my neighbour’s drain. I thought nothing was unusual as maybe they forgot to turn off their pipe or washing something. I continued on my daily routine, going to work and so on.

When I came back from work that night, I still saw the excessive water just like this morning. I wonder is the neighbour still washing or there is a pipe leaked somewhere.

Few days passed by, and become weeks – no change on the water condition – still pouring from my neighbour’s drain.

At one night, my other neighbour told me that he had turned off MY MAIN WATER SUPPLY because he saw that my water meter spinning like crazy!...I was baffled...and wonder how come the water came out from my neighbour’s drain got to do with my water meter?

Testing time – I turned on the main water supply and see what happen. The water suddenly emerged from my neighbour’s drain, and when I turned it off, it surprisingly disappeared!

Apparently, somehow the water hose from underground had burst and leaked to the neighbour’s drain (instead of mine). – yeah, it’s confusing.

I received the water bill from SYABAS by the end of the month and the amount is : RM1,020-00!

 Its painfully the truth!

I called my normal small scale contractor, En Ahmad , what we called him, to assess the situation and see what is his recommendation.  He said the location of the underground pipe hose from the main pipe (outside the fence) and to my house need to be identified first. Then, the tiles at the car porch need to be hacked to make way for the repair work. The problem is, he don’t know where is the underground pipe linked to my house and worst, he also don’t know how deep it is.

And took a wild guess of a few spots – that need to be hacked. Logically, the pipe hose from the main pipe is in a straight form deep down inside and normally, it buried only 1 or 2 feet deep.

He quoted RM600-00 for the whole repair works – which I almost fainted!

My wife also helped a lot, she asked around the neighbourhood anyone who had experienced similar case like mine, and luckily there was one. Not quite similar but good enough.

The previous case was the water leaked inside the wall which also needs some hacking.  She recommended this contractor.

So, I contacted this contractor who hailed from Ampang. He quoted mmmmm....about RM200 for labour cost but I need to purchase the spare parts – i.e pipe hose, connector etc .

Few days later the repair works began, first hacking the suspected spot which he would think the most suitable spot that the pipe hose is there, failed! Tried another spot, bingo!

 The T-Joint

I was relief that if the contractor could not find the hose, I would sacrifice the whole yard for hacking.

Then, we found the problems – the pipe hose from the main pipe had been divided by two by T-joint, one straight to my sink, and another (the pipe hose is more buried towards my neighbour’s) go straight upstairs. 

The pipe hose that was buried towards my neighbour’s was the culprit. It has burst inside. So, to replace the burst pipe will need to destroy the neighbour’s lawn – it was a no-no condition. 

 The new connector

So, the contractor decided to make a new connection which will be exposed but nicely done. The hose coming from the joint, attached with the pillar and through the ceiling.

A hole need to be drilled from the ceiling penetrate inside my ground floor’s toilet. The pipe hose then reconnected back to the big water tank. Done.

 a gaping hole

It’s a half day job. The next thing was, to resurface and replaced the destroyed tiles. I suggested to monitor the new installed pipe hose first just in case if there is any leakage. There was one leakage but really minor and does not increase my water bill.

The following week, the contractor came to replace the tiles. The whole process cost me around RM463-00 (I saved RM137-00 from the first contractor who quoted RM600-00).

If you need the contractor’s contact, please email me. The contractor also servicing clog sewerage problems and mostly piping.

The Syabas bill excessive amount - I went to Syabas in Kajang town (near Hospital Kajang) to complaint. Based on asking around from my friends they said that Syabas only concern on their main pipe BEFORE the pipe entering the house. If you think you can instruct Syabas to waive the bill amount, you're great! Unfortunately, that's not how things work.

So, what we can do is to draft a letter of appeal for a schedule monthly payment of RM50-00. We submitted the letter. The answer was within one week. Apparently, Syabas Kajang had to submit the appeal letter to Syabas HQ which is located in Jalan Pantai Baru.

A letter came in a week later and surprisingly they accepted our appeal. - So, there we go - payment of RM50-00 for 20 months for the water that we never used! Hooray for SYABAS for making more money.

Thank you.