renting, blocked drains who pays?

stolt

hi we are currently renting a house, my wife has just phoned to say that some neighbours have come round this morning so say that the sewage drains are blocked and that we need to call someone out to fix them as they are near to overflowing. I'm at work and will have a look when i get home, they did say that they cant speak to any other neighbours as they are out but the blockage is from ours possibly up the street. I guess the drains are like a daisy chain effect and it could be that someone down the round has blocked the drains and its backing up.

I cant get hold of my landlord at the moment, but is it wise just to call someone out without the landlords consent, who should pay for something like this, shoudl it be shared between the neighbours is it our responsibility, we had really heavy rain last night and the night before and i wonder if that has anything to do with it!

help

poppysarah

Sounds like a repair ...
And that'd be the landlords job. What's your tenancy say?

charmed-imsure

I had this happen in a previous house I rented, it was actually my local council that came round & unblocked for us as if it had have been left, it would effect others' in the neighbourhood. When they came round, they in fact traced the blockage back to a drain in the main road but our house seemed to be the first effected by the terrible smells. Try the council first? They'll do it for free.

stolt

thanks for the quick replies, with me being at work i will need to check the tenancy agreement when i get in tonight. I will try the council as charmed-imsure suggested.

stolt

just had a quick look on my local councils website and it states the following....
Blocked Drains
Your local authority provides a 24 hour, 365 day, emergency service at £12.81 + VAT for one hour's work maximum, with drain rods only.


what i dont understand is if its not our drain thats blocked will they go to next door and try theres and then on and on until its found but still bill me because i instructed them to do the work.

leftieM

We had this issue recently. We're in a semi and share the drains but access is on our side. The landlord was on hols but eventually got his dad out to have a go at them. There was no question of us paying. Our neighbour got the council out too as she wanted it done asap (it was about to flow into her garage.)

Premier_2

Why doesn't the person who is experiencing the problem call out whoever they need?

You are right, if you call out the plumber, the plumber will expect you to pay!

As part of the job, the workman should identify the reason for the blockage. Whoever caused the problem would be liable for the cost incurred, but the plumber won't want to get involved in the dispute about being paid himself - only offer (for a price) to be the expert witness involved should the matter need to go to court.


Btw, a tenant would usually be responsible for any blockage caused by them (e.g. pouring fat down the sink, flushing nappies down the toilet, etc). A LL would be responsible for the repair if it was caused by, say, the sewerage pipe collapsing due to land movement, etc.

olly300

When was the house built?

I rented a property which was built in the 1930's and we had drains in a daisy chain affect. When they blocked we telephoned the landlord who told us to called out the water company. We did and they unblocked them free of charge.

Lots of water companies are actually responsible for clearing shared drains in older properties so I suggest you go to you water company's website and have a look.

mlz1413

stolt - how old is your house?

I ask because the old 1900 terraces are often covered by your water authority.

Otherwise why don't you ask your LL this question direct? If they have lived there they might know the answer or if they may even have had this problem before.

tanith

We had to call out the council several times where we used to live and it was never our fault as the drains were on a run of 10 houses.. they cleared it several times and never billed us once...

adouglasmhor

Sewers are not drains, drains are not sewers, if you are having probs with a domestic sewer and not a land drain it could be your waterboard/authority who are the responsible body.