blocked sewer on public highway

[michaelangelo7]

Watching a program on tv the other night about blocked drains I felt sorry for the poor chap who had to call in a firm of drain clearers only to discover to his horror that the problem was not on his property but out on a busy main road where his outfall connected to the main sewer.Surely the remedial costs should not have fallen on the householder,as in this case(it was a collapsed pipe under the road)the problem was caused by heavy traffic on the road?

[Andy Pandy]

We have a similar situation but fortunately not such serious damage.

There is a private sewer that serves 38 houses and then crosses the road - a bus route - to join the main sewer on the other side of the road.

We were deemed responsible when it became blocked and required clearing and lining. No one wanted to organize this number of householders, many of whom denied any liablity and so it was left to the council to organize and pay for the work, to which was added a 33% administration fee, the total then being divided between the properties.

If you are in such a position, it is worth making sure your insurance covers such items as we were fortunate there was so many of us but a couple of semi-detached bungalows further down the road each have a road crossing and the cost would have been considerable.

Andy

[Derek ^]

They wouldn't if the road and the drains had been adopted by the Council.

The Council refused to adopt our road and drains for nearly 20 years because the drains had been damaged in scores of places by heavy machinery whilst the estate was being built.

Unaccountably the builders had been released from their bond by the Council but the Council had been subsequently been re-organised and somehow the minutes of the Council meeting that released the bond had gone missing. Like they do. ;-)

DG

[Martin Angove]

Had the opposite problem at church recently.

We've known for years that there was a partly collapsed drain between our outflow and the main sewer which runs under the busy road just outside, but it wasn't a problem until we decided to build an extension complete with new loos.

Our suspicions were that the collapse was caused by road widening carried out by the council many years ago, but there's no way to prove it, so we were liable for the repair.

The money could have been better used elsewhere, but we *really* needed those new loos!

Hwyl!

M.