letter from water co yesterday - news to me

[Jethro]

Had a letter from my water company today, saying that they are gong to adopt any unadopted sewers that might run from my house, but beyond my property ... unless I appeal it happens on October 1st 2011

It quotes some act dated this year, and mentions this is to address the problem where some people discover they are liable to repair massive runs of sewer pipe between their boundary and the main - ISTR stories about this. Can cost tens of thousands.

It also mentions as a result everybodies bills will rise between =A33 and 14 a year.

I'm in two minds about this - one the one hand it seems to make the system fair for everyone. But on the other hand, I suspect the more well heeled will actually benefit.

Just hadn't heard a squeak about it till I got the letter. Was mildly surprised.

[Steve Walker]

It's been mentioned on here before.

I think that for most people, it is a great idea. At the moment, you have the responsibility for the connection from your house all the way to the main sewer and as for most people this includes the section under the road, you can be in for a very large bill that you have no control over.

Ours collapsed a few years ago, right where it turned into a vertical drop down to the main sewer. Luckily, as it was shared with the house next-door and was built before 1937, United Utilities had to pay for it. If it hadn't met these requirements, we'd have had to pay for it and we were told at the time that it could have involved a road closure (it didn't in the end) and cost up to 15 grand! All for something, that had the collapse been on my own property, I could have done myself for a fraction of the price.

The insurance we had for such an event wouldn't have gone anywhere near enough and I think many people would have been equally suprised just how much it could cost them.

Sharing the risk and the cost around everyone seems eminently sensible.

I can't see how this is likely to mainly benefit the more well heeled, as they'd be able to afford such repairs anyway.

SteveW

[Tired]

Pleasantly surprised, those with unadopted roads that are shared are palming off a lot of financial responsibility.

[McKevvy]

Compare it to a situation that my friend is in. The road to his house (and another 14 and a busy old folks home) is a private road but everyone uses it. The road is in shit state - I hate driving it because it has so many deep potholes that are only inches apart - sitting in the car in 1st gear on that road is certainly no fun..I can hear my suspension cursing me as a drive. Anyway, the road is temporarily patched by the odd resident or two but it's nowhere the professional job that would be done if the L.A. adopted it. The residents have had quotes of =A3300k for getting it properly tarred and drainage installed but that's just too much. Answer =3D let the L.A. adopt it.

McK

[Gordon Henderson]

South West Water? We got one too..

And since there is a lot of shared sewers round the side/back of my house, I think I'm OK with it all.

Gordon

[Tim Watts]

I was waiting for this. Haven't had my notification yet, but it will come.

I have a shared sewer under my garden serving me plus 3 others.

I'm extremely grateful as last time we had a problem, none of the other tightwads would get involved and whilst my insurers said they would cover it, they wouldn't budge actually paying until the others had signed up to contribute towards it.

So nothing happened, I'm several hundred squid down for getting it cleared last time and it's only a matter of time before it fails again (tree roots in several joints plus a cracked section).

I think that situation is not that uncommon, so it's a fairer system for those of use with shared sewers.

For everyone else (and I haven't read the Act) - does it cover the bit that goes from your boundary to the road sewer - because the householder is liable for that too and that can get expensive...

For the record, the useless insurance company in question is Axa, so best avoid them if you actually want a payout IMO.

Cheers

Tim

[Tired]

You want the tax payer to buy your friends private road? It would have been made perfectly clear the liabilities incurred from taking on a property with a private road when he purchased it. The purchase price would have been reduced accordingly. I dont want my council tax used to buy your friends road.

[JohnW]

According to the diagram in the one I have just received from Anglian Water, the responsibility changes at the property boundary, so yes it does cover from the boundary to the sewer.

John

[Frank Erskine]

Here's a link to Northumbrian Water's interpretation:-

[jgharston]

Which they won't do unless it's of adoptable standard before it's handed over.

JGH

[Zapp Brannigan]

Yeah, we got one of those. They can have it!

[Mike Harrison]

I wonder if we'll see arguments over whether damage occurred before or after Oct

1st...

[Newshound]

Severn Trent, in my case

[Mark]

I would have thought that the ?well heeled" would be more likely to live in detached houses which are _less likely_ to share their drains with neighbours, so the benefit to them would only be from the edge of their property to the connection with the main sewer. But then anyone unlucky to have a problem with their drains under the ?pavement or road upto now could have faced a bill running into many thousands.

-

[therustyone]

You will find the way it works is that the LA (or county highways) will not adopt a road and pay for improvement. They will first charge the residents a one-off to bring it up to national standard, which might be a lot more than the =A3300k. After that they will do maintenance for free.

rusty

[kat]

We live in a detached house and share a sewer with the also detached house next door - it runs between the properties, and under the road for quite a distance before it meets the main sewer. We had a problem with it being blocked a few years back, and the blockage was under the road. Happily for both of us it turned out a new water pipe had been installed recently by the water board - right through our sewer pipe. They had to fix it themselves.

[PeterC]

We had them from Anglian. I'm the second house, so the first house has responsibility to our fence, AW has responsibility then to the main and my responsibility is from the soil stack to the sewer' manhole about a foot away :-) Er, have I got that right?

[Andy Cap]

No I don't believe so ! The WC will have responsibility for the whole length of formerly, private sewer. Each householder will then only be responsible for the connection into the private sewer. I think it's a great idea as our shared sewer (18 houses) goes under the road.

Andy C

[Paul Hyett]

On Sat, 16 Jul 2011 at 10:25:04, Jethro wrote in uk.legal :

I received a similar letter a couple of weeks ago - and found it very unclear as to exactly what was going on.

[Paul Hyett]

On Sat, 16 Jul 2011 at 22:56:54, Mark wrote in uk.legal :

How often has this scenario actually happened, I wonder?

How many people have lost their houses and/or gone bankrupt (or at least plunged deep into debt) because of it?