Plumbing system causing problems for homeowners
CTV Atlantic
10 October 2013
A plumbing system called Kitec is causing some problems for homeowners.
The issue is with the pipes, which can leak and cause serious water
damage if they aren’t replaced.
“Quite a few years ago, they migrated from copper plumbing to a plastic
kind of plumbing called pex,” says home inspector Doug Wheatley. “There
was a certain type that was manufactured that proved to have some
problems.”
Thousands of homeowners across North America are experiencing problems
due to the faulty pipes, including some in the Maritimes.
“There’s some leaking and failure of the pipe, sometimes at the
fittings and sometimes with the piping itself,” says Wheatley.
Homeowners who had the pipes, branded under the name Kitec, installed
between 1995 and 2006 may be at risk.
“The place to start looking is around your boiler where the feeds go
out to the baseboards or the in-floor of the house,” says Wheatley.
Dimitri Papoulis owns a plumbing and heating company in Halifax. He
says some homeowners are opting to replace the pipes as a precaution,
even if they haven’t had any issues with their plumbing.
“We’ve been doing Kitec removal now, probably one a week for the last
six months,” says Papoulis.
“There hasn’t been that many failures with it but again, there’s a
cause for concern because the pipe can fail. The fittings can fail and
then you can have flooding in your home.”
According to the Kitec website, a $125-million settlement fund was set
up in 2011 as part of an out-of-court lawsuit to help people who have
issues with the plumbing.
Claims can be filed by logging onto kitecsettlement.com. Homeowners
with Kitec plumbing have until January 9, 2020 to be eligible for
relief.
Faulty pipes cause headaches for homeowners
Settlement reached in class action lawsuits
CBC News
By Karen Brady
29 June 2011
A family rocked by a $13,000 plumbing bill is warning people to beware
of potentially faulty plumbing lurking behind the walls of homes built
or renovated in the last two decades.
Frank and Annette Cappellino built their dream home in LaSalle, near
Windsor, Ont., about 10 years ago. Last fall, the Cappellinos came home
to a flood in their basement.
"Water was just spewing out like a waterfall," said Frank Cappellino.
"A pipe had totally burst."
Cappellino said after a home inspection by a plumbing distributor and a
representative of the Canadian manufacturer IPEX, the rep told him the
cause of the leak was defective pipes branded under the name Kitec —
pipes that were running throughout the house.
"He said he had to take a part of it back to his company to get it
tested but indicated that if it was his pipe, basically he would have
it replaced," Cappellino said.
The Cappellinos contacted the company to find out the testing results,
but said they were told they couldn't have a copy of the report because
a class action lawsuit was underway. IPEX provided the Cappellinos with
the name of the Windsor law firm leading the suit. Cappellino said they
joined the legal fight shortly thereafter.
On Tuesday, lawyers for IPEX Inc. and IPEX USA LLC announced they had
reached an agreement in the lawsuit, and that a $125-million US
settlement fund has been proposed.
Product used
extensively
Another family, whose home was built the same year as the Cappellinos,
also ended up replacing all the pipes in their home at their own
expense, after finding issues with their Kitec pipes, manufactured by
IPEX.
Plumbers in the region have been getting more and more calls about the
Kitec brand of pipe, also known as PEX.
According to Kyle Fowler, co-owner of Fowler Plumbing in Windsor, if
you built or remodelled your home in the last decade or so, it's likely
Kitec pipes were used. He said he gets at least one call a week that
turns out to be Kitec-related, and he said the plumbing system was used
in most of the newer subdivisions.
"I even have some in my house," Fowler said. "Because we didn't know.
We thought it was good."
The Kitec plumbing system consists of blue and orange flexible piping
and brass fittings, used to carry cold and hot water through a home.
Kitec products were also used in radiant heating systems.
The pipes were made from polyethylene and a thin inner layer of
aluminum, and plumbers considered them to be an excellent product
because they were cheaper than copper and their flexible nature made
the product easy to install.
The class action lawsuits in Canada and the U.S. allege that the
product was negligently manufactured, which caused the pipes to
disintegrate prematurely.
The pipes were sold from 1995 to 2007, and potential claims have been
filed by residents of Alberta, B.C., Ontario, Quebec, and the
Maritimes, according to Dave Robins, the lawyer representing Canadians
in the class action lawsuit.
Kitec was sold under various brand names, including Kitec, PlumbBetter,
IPEX, AQUA, WARMRITE, Kitec XPA, AmbioComfort, XPA, KERR Controls and
Plomberie Amelioree.
Fittings
recalled in 1990s
In 1995, IPEX recalled brass compression fittings from Canadian and
U.S. distributors. The Canadian statement of claim alleged the fittings
were faulty causing pipes to disintegrate. Plumbers say the brass
reacted with the chemical composition of the pipe, causing it to
corrode, or "dezincify," and fail.
Tim Tiegs, a faculty co-ordinator for the skilled trades programs at
St. Clair College in Windsor, said the only way for homeowners to make
sure the allegedly faulty pipes don't turn into costly water damage
claims is to have them replaced.
"Most of what I've read and heard is the fact that if you have it, you
need to replace it ... that it's gone from whether or not it will fail,
to when it will fail," said Tiegs.
Fowler said replacing pipes usually means cutting open walls — a costly
repair.
"It's the only way to absolutely guarantee that you're not going to
have any trouble, because you can fix leaks but that's just the start.
It will go through the whole house eventually," he said.
Tiegs said at the very least, homeowners with Kitec plumbing systems
should have a trusted plumber check out the condition of the pipes and
fittings.
Property owners and those looking to buy a home should also be aware of
the possibility of problems insuring homes if the plumbing is found to
be faulty, he said.
Settlement
agreement reached
Nicholas Rosati of Windsor and Anthony Bellissimo of Toronto initiated
the Canadian class action lawsuit, which was certified in February.
There are two suits in Canada — one for Quebec and one covering the
rest of the country. A multi-district class action suit was initiated
against IPEX in the U.S. as well.
A settlement agreement was reached Tuesday.
A statement issued jointly by the lawyers of the Canadian and American
plaintiffs said:
"IPEX denies these allegations and asserts that the Kitec system is not
defective and that the vast majority of the systems will last
throughout the warranty period [30 years]. The parties have agreed to
the settlement to avoid the expense, inconvenience and distraction of
further protracted litigation and to fully resolve this matter."
IPEX Inc., which has offices in Toronto and Verdun, Que., refused to
comment on the allegations about the company's products or the lawsuit
when contacted by CBC News.
Canadian lawyer Robins said the settlement fund will be open to claims
for eight years "because the prospect of the product failing could
materialize over some time."
The settlement agreement still has to be approved in court, he said.
None of the allegations against IPEX have been proven in court.
Advertisements ran in newspapers across Canada on Wednesday notifying
the public about the settlement, and providing information on how
people could determine if they qualify to submit a claim.
Court hearings, meant to determine if the settlement is fair, are
scheduled for November and December.
Links
For information on a class
action suit settlement.
For more information on the Kitec system.
Kitec plumbing in your home will cost you. (Where
is RECO on this issue?)
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