'Last straw': Launceston couple to sue TasWater over cracked house

Geoff and Jackie Brayford have been pursuing the state-owned company since May 2022, when their house began cracking up overnight.

Two days earlier, TasWater had fixed a major water leak directly outside their home that had been left unattended for 24 days.

In the final 12-15 hours of the leak, water was flowing at 10-20 litres a second - which could amount to more than one million litres in that period alone.

Mr Brayford, who previously worked for City of Launceston as director of water and sewer services and once managed the burst water main in question, said he believed the leak had caused the clay under his property to expand, leading to cracking in most rooms of the house.

"It was flowing all the way down that driveway and those roads, but it's not the surface flow that damaged our house ... it was the subterranean soakage that damaged our house," he said.

"I suspect it was leaking for more than 24 days - that's only the time between when it was first observed to when it was fixed."

TasWater has previously admitted it took too long to fix the leak, and a video obtained by Mr Brayford shows a TasWater employee describing the company's response to the leak as "disgraceful" and "embarrassing".

However, the company says the leak was not the cause of damage to the Brayfords' home.

Matt Balfe, TasWater's general manager of customer and community, said the company had followed the proper processes in assessing the matter.

"We encouraged the Brayfords to provide information in relation to alleged damage to their home so that their allegations could be thoroughly assessed by us and our insurers," Mr Balfe said.

"The Brayfords lodged the required information with us in August 2023.

"Upon receiving this information, we promptly engaged with our insurers to ensure the allegations were assessed by independent, qualified geotechnical and structural experts. This process concluded in February 2024.

"We have taken these allegations seriously, followed a comprehensive process including getting expert assessment and have confirmed we are not responsible for the damage to the Brayfords' home."

Mr Brayford said the two reports commissioned by TasWater had produced contradictory findings, and said the assertion that a wet month had contributed to his house cracking was "ludicrous".

Mr Brayford retired at the end of December 2021, and the couple planned to finish their 15-year-long renovation project in the final eight months of 2022.

But a traumatic morning in May that year put paid to their plans.

Mrs Brayford woke up at 2am to what sounded like a shotgun going off.

"I was on the phone to Geoff [who was interstate] watching the cracks go down the wall," she said.

"I didn't know what was going on.

"I packed a bag and I was up the rest of that night and all the next day."

Since then, the Brayfords have endured nearly 700 days of a "frustrating" process involving lawyers, reports, and back-and-forth emails with TasWater staff.

Mr Brayford, who was asked several times to stop contacting TasWater staff, said he was shocked when TasWater sent police to his home in January to conduct a welfare check.

The Brayfords had friends over for dinner when officers arrived at the door.

"I just see that as a final form of more bullying and harassment and trying to pressure us to go away and be quiet," he said.

"That was the last straw from my point of view. I haven't spoken to them since."

The Brayfords have had support from friends, engineers and politicians.

Independent Launceston MLC Rosemary Armitage said while TasWater were typically quick to respond to customer issues, the Brayfords had been left without answers for far too long.

"It's been a struggle to get information out of TasWater ... it shouldn't have been the process that it is," she said.

"Everyone appreciates that TasWater say it's public money, and yes it is, but this has gone on for over 600 days and these people's lives have been turned upside down.

"A decision should have been made or some assistance should have been provided much earlier."

After two years in limbo, the Brayfords plan to sell the house in its damaged state and "get what [they] can" for it.

They will continuing pursuing TasWater for the difference between the sale price and what the property would have fetched had it sold fully-renovated in December 2022.

"We have to fight on," Mr Brayford said.

"We'll take the hit and then we'll pursue that loss of value for as long as it takes.

"We will win this, but I don't want to spend another two years winning it."

The couple has already spent $25,000 on lawyers and reports to back up their case.

They will have to spend more to take the matter to the supreme court.

"We've really reached that point where we've had enough, but we can't let them win," Mrs Brayford said.

"I've watched our house get ruined, our lives ruined, our dreams.

"We wake up every day and have to see the damage - for nobody to take responsibility or understand what that's doing to our lives, I think is pretty awful."