Where my house is sitauted, we are on the lower face of a hillside. Running behind our street is another parallel street. In the garden of the house on the upper side of the street behind there is a natural spring which runs into a pond in their garden. This pond has a drain pipe in it, which appears to pass under the road, (heading downhill) then continues in pretty much a straight line downhill which takes it through the garden of the house which backs onto mine, and then through my property from back to front, passing under one side of my house. We have had problems with underground breakage to this pipe, which was repaired by my insurers under accidental damage cover. However this has not cured the proplem of my garden becoming absolutely waterlogged, with the water running off the garden. The soil is thick clay as far down as I have dug, (approx 4 -5 feet). Various camera surveys etc have shown the pipe is not collapsed, but is not watertight, it is a 7" clay pipe. As the garden is above the groundlevel of the house, I am very concerned that this water will be damaging my foundations etc, as the water must try and travel downhill, (ie where my house is). This pipe was not mentioned when we bought (2 years ago) although the previous owner must have known of its existence as he built an extension over the pipe and would have unearthed it at some point, and does not seem to appear on any drawings the council have. If the pipe needs replacing / repairing, is there any liabilty to the people to whom the pipe serves, specifically the house with the spring, or would the council/water authority have any responsiblity. This pipe is not utilised by me at all, it simply passes under my land, although it is causing me great problems at present, and an estimated bill of thousands to repair or replace it.
- posted
19 years ago