The claims that we most commonly deal with involve crack damage to property. Where that damage occurs in certain parts of the UK the assumption can be reached early on in the claim that the damage has been caused by the influence of tree roots.
However, industry practice and common sense sets out that the first investigation when dealing with cracking to a property should be to investigate nearby drains to see if there are any water leaks.
Water leaking from underground drains can cause issues for a property in a different way. Leaking water causes volume change in the ground underneath the foundations of a property by washing soil away. This can particularly happen in areas with sandy or gravelly soil.
Where properties which have suffered crack damage as a result of water leaks from drains, the pattern of the movement of the property is different from the pattern that occurs when trees are causing the movement. Rather than the monitoring showing the recovery of the soil over the wetter winter period, movement from leaking drains shows a continual downward movement with no recovery.
Leaking water can lead to larger events such as the appearance of sink holes. A sink hole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. Often this is linked to a water leak from underground pipes which has saturated the ground causing either erose of weak material by the flowing water or dissolution of the rock.
Leaks of water from burst pipes can also be made worse by climate change. Movement to the ground caused by hotter, drier conditions can lead to an increase in fractures to underground pipes and an increase in water leaks.
If you have a claim where subsidence is being investigated then drain investigations should be the first thing carried out in investigating the cause of the cracking.
Check out our Tree Law TV episode about this – Subsidence from leaking drains
