OT-ish - drain blockages, neighbours etc

I know this sort of thing crops up here periodically, so hope I can tap into the group's expertise...

My neighbour apparently has a blocked pipe (sewage? surface water? not sure yet); however this affects me in that said pipe runs under my drive where it mates up with an inspection cover (from where DynoRod are doing their stuff). I don't have any drainage problem myself, but if the damage/blockage is on the leg of pipe just serving the neighbour's property, but is located on my property, do I need to share (bear?) any repair costs?

Or is this one of those 'check the deeds' questions?

Relations are good and I don't want to shirk any responsibilities I may have, but don't want to offer something I don't need to!

Thanks David

Reply to
Lobster
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First question is whether it is a public or private sewer? If it just serves

2 or 3 properties, chances are that it is a private sewer, in which case the unblocking costs are the responsibility of the householders whose properties are served by it - *unless* the properties were built before 193x (I forget the exact date, but it's thirty-something), in which case it's the water board's responsibility, and you shouldn't be wasting money on private contractors such as DynoRod.

Assuming it's down to the householders, your deeds will say something about it - but the most likely scenario is that the owners of all properties served by the sewer are jointly responsible, even if not equally affected by the problem.

Reply to
Roger Mills

Won't help you now, but for future reference.

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Reply to
Mark

have been in opposition.

Reply to
Imbecile

Well the sewer concerned serves my house and the neighbours (adjoining semis) and definitely pre-1930 - the properties were built in 1912. Is that really right that in a house of that age, the water co is responsible if the blockage is on private property? In my case we think the blockage is in the diagonal leg of the sewer in the ASCII-art below (ie, potentially under either mine or my neighbour's drive). If so where would I find chapter and verse on that?

__________________________________ | | | | Lobster | John Q. | | Towers | Neighbour's | | | House | | | | | | | | | | |________________|_________________| | X / Drive | X/ Drive | X _|_ /X IC | |/ X |___| X | X X=hedge | X IC=inspection chamber ========================================= | Sewer| MAIN ROAD

=========================================

Thanks again David

Reply to
Lobster

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Very likely. Severn Trent have already started surveying older properties in my area (West Midlands)to map out the existing drains - dating from

1936 I think. A few weeks after their survey they came back to clean the drains they'd discovered / mapped.

Cic.

Reply to
Cicero

Try this one:

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carefully at the bits about pre- and post- 1937

[Although this is on one particular water company's site, I'm sure that the same thing applies elsewhere].
Reply to
Roger Mills

That's interesting. My house is Victorian and shares the drain with next door. All their drains go to a manhole in my back yard where mine join - then exit *under* my house, to a manhole in the front then on to the street sewer. Are you saying they are the responsibility of the water company?

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

If you don't discharge into the blocked section it is not your responsiblility. If you do you share the costs, but not if it was built before 193mumble, when it is the Water Co's rsponsibility.

However, if you ask a private contractor and not the water Co. to do the job, it remains your responsibility to pay them.

Reply to
<me9

IC to sewer, water co. IC to houses, the user's responsibility, so it is your neighbour's rsponsibility up to the IC for the diagonal.

Reply to
<me9

I suspect for practical reasons the whole of the shared sewer is normally down to the water company. It's quicker for them to just clear it than to try and pinpoint the problem. There is also the scenario where the people on whose property the blockage occurs are on holiday etc

Reply to
Stuart Noble

I *think* so. Did you see the link which I posted later, which explains it further? Here it is again:

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Reply to
Roger Mills

is a national thing.

My neighbour had a drain clearer in just last week. Charged 300 quid - but didn't ask me for a contribution. Wonder how fast a water company would turn up - this wasn't an actual blockage - just an occasional smell. And I'm not sure that what they did would have sorted it permanently. I think it's down to a patio drain they had installed at the same time as removing their outside loo. The builders were proper bodgers. My guess is the outside loo wasn't properly capped off or whatever.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Dyno Rod? - Your neighbour must like bills. Surely one of you could have bought a set of rods for less than the call-out charge

Reply to
cynic

I think Thames Water are obliged to come within 4 hours. In our case they park a sizeable lorry in the middle of the road, roll out some sort of huge flexible drive thing, and are gone in about 10 minutes.

- this wasn't an actual blockage - just an occasional smell. And

Reply to
Stuart Noble

Those boys really earn their inflated costs.

I cleared a full inspection cover for one of my friends a while back. What a bloody awful job, even with goggles, gauntlets and a face mask.

I'll be thinking twice before I volunteer again :-)

Paul.

Reply to
zymurgy

You have to be careful between the definition of a drain and a sewer

See Diagram at the bottom of this page

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under Section 24 or the new regs you are still responsible for your own Drains.

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Reply to
Mark

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even under Section 24 or the new regs you are still responsible for your > own Drains.

Looking at that diagram, it suggests the common part of the shared drain is public. Although they seem to set out to confuse. .

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

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>
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> even under Section 24 or the new regs you are still responsible for > your own Drains.

True - but the new (2011) regs will leave you better off than the Section 24 situation. AIUI, after 2011, you will *only* be responsible for that part of a private drain (serving only your property) which is within your property boundaries. As soon as it becomes shared, or goes outside your boundary, it will become the water company's responsibility.

Reply to
Roger Mills

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So in my case that would be the part joining the manhole at the back of the house (where all my drains and next doors meet up) which then runs under my house to the front garden and another manhole (with no extra drains going into it) and then on to the street one? Ie the expensive part to fix if it went badly wrong?

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

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