Broken sewer - what can I do?

BrownGirl

Sorry for long post - hope someone can advise me on my options.

I live in an ex-council mid-terrace house. 2 other houses in the block are privately owned but the other 3 are still owned by the council.

I spent 2 hours yesterday trying to unblock my toilet but gave up in defeat and phoned a drain specialist. He's been this lunchtime and after cutting the soil stack and putting a camera down he found the problem was a broken sewer behind my house (under a large concrete step & path); it is in the horizontal bit of the sewer - I asked it was shared by the houses further up the block and he said it was. He's said I can use the toilet but obviously some of this may well seep into the garden now so I'd like to get it sorted asap.

I've checked my buildings insurance but it doesn't look like it covers drains/sewers. I cancelled the homeserve pipe/drainage cover a couple of years ago after having problems with a different one of their services so don't have any special drain/sewer cover.

I've just emailed the local council to see if they can help at all - thought as the sewer is used by some council houses they may at least be able to pay something towards the costs. Am just waiting for a reponse.

Can anyone give me advice on anything else I can do - or approx how much it might cost. The guy today gave a rough guess of £1200 before tax; I've already paid out £240 for the work today so could do with keeping costs down as much as possible.

Thanks for any help you can give.

macman

You really should have checked before you started paying out. How old is the property? If it's a shared drain and the property was built before 1937 then it's the water authority's problem (nothing to do with your local council). If post 1937, then it's between you and the other freeholders (obviously including the council) who use that drain to share the costs.

BrownGirl

Hi macman, thanks for your quick reply.

Our house is post 1937 - I'd read about the sewer being the responsibility of Yorkshire Water if it was pre-1937 so unfortunatley I know I can't go down that route.

The money I've paid out was for the guy to fix the blocked toilet and as part of that he put the camera down the sewer to check it was all clear & jet washed it - I didn't know it was a broken sewer until he did this, I thought it was just a 'natural' blockage. I'm not going to pay anything else out until I know what I'm doing especially if I can get a contribution from neighbours/council - however I don't want to wait too long as all that sewerage is leaking into my garden.

I just wasn't really sure what I need to do next or if I was missing another option other than just paying up and trying to get a contribution back from neighbours/council.

Mustard_Dave

As macman says, it is joint responsibility of all the properties served.

Do you know how bad the damage is and how they propose to repair it? £1,200 sounds a little too high to me.

sillywilly

I would say £1200 sound ridiculous. You really need to find out if it shared with the council properties - because then it will get paid by the council.

Just had a similar problem - but live in a privately owned block of flats. Phoned the management company and they sent out someone the same day. Had raw sewage seeping out outside the kitchen window - nice!

Problem was sorted within 6 hours - probably could have sorted out the blockage with drain rods myself.

If it is shared then surely it is not your sole responsibility?

lowbrim

Not strictly above board but I would take out insurance cover with Homeserve wait a couple of months and claim.

In my view Homeserve sail very close to the wind on the way they sell insurance and there definition of "Emergency Cover" so I would consider it legitimate.

I had full cover for plumbing and electricity from Homeserve and when I come to claim because of a faulty ballcock they asked if I could turn the water off. When I answered yes they said that under there terms of business this was not an emergency then!! I ended up calling a plumber and cancelled my policy other than water and drainage cover which I have kept.

BrownGirl

Thanks guys - hopefully the council will get back to me tomorrow so I'll know if they can do/pay anything towards it or maybe even do it all and I just have to pay a share of it (which would be brilliant). He showed me the broken bit of the sewer on the camera screen and even with my untrained eye I could tell it was broken & not just cracked - it hadn't totally collapsed in all round but that section of the sewer will need replacing. He said it would cost more as its a concrete step & path which would need digging up to get to it and he said it would probably be two days work. Fingers crossed the council come up with some good news.

BrownGirl

Thanks lowbrim - I did think about taking Homeserve out again (I cancelled a few years back due to poor service on one of their other policies). I think it said you had to wait at least 14 days before making a claim on a new policy and I'm not sure if waiting that long will cause problems - I think another 4 houses feed into the sewer above me so that's a lot of waste potentially going into my garden. Is this too long to wait do you think?

sillywilly

The fact is - drains are shared. We had the access on our property years ago so I was the one who had to go and rod the shi7. Very fun if you are into scat. Unfortunately I'm not. However if something had busted in there I wouldn't have hesitated pulling in the neighbours. You have the council so should be pretty straightforward.

Doubt you will see that £240 again - may as well flushed it down the .... well you know!

lowbrim

BrownGirl wrote: »

Thanks lowbrim - I did think about taking Homeserve out again (I cancelled a few years back due to poor service on one of their other policies). I think it said you had to wait at least 14 days before making a claim on a new policy and I'm not sure if waiting that long will cause problems - I think another 4 houses feed into the sewer above me so that's a lot of waste potentially going into my garden. Is this too long to wait do you think?

A few weeks is not going to make a lot of difference you just need to make sure you stick to your guns when you claim and say that it has only just happened. Once you get over the phone call the tradesmen will not care less they will just want to get the job done.

MX5huggy

Taking out the Homeserve policy is of course FRAUD, but go ahead if you are a fraudster.