Combined drainage with next door .. what is our liability ?

Oliver_Green

sirish1979 wrote: »

Hi all,

I have recently moved to our new house after a long conveyancing period.
after a week the neighbours came to see us and they were saying that our drainage from the bathroom is mixing with their main pipe and she wants us to change it immediately.

We didnt observe this before and came to know just at that time.

She was actually very threatening telling that we are tresspassing her property and she may sue us for that. and if we dont change it and if there is any problem of flooding then we will be responsible to cover all the damages it seems.

I dont remeber if our surveyor mentioned this in the report or not.

so i dont have any idea how should we go about it??
Any suggesstion will be of great help .

regards,
Sirish

Hi Sirish,

Your first point of contact would be to get in touch your previous Solicitor immediately!!

They will have the title documents necessary to advice you and they should have made a full report to you in writing or verbally.

Read the report and see what they advised or contact them directly. Someone needs to look at your deeds and they are best placed to do this if you just bought with them.

I hope this help,

Oliver Green

John_Pierpoint

Ah Solicitors love making money out of this sort of nonsense.
Is her house upstream from yours or vice versa ?
Does your Land Registry document say anything specific about "easements" and rights of way? Unfortunately if the houses were built as an estate you may find reference to a standard set of conditions and tracking down where they are filed can be expensive and time wasting.
Were the houses self evidently built at the same time and still using their original private sewers.
If it has been changed but like that for 20 years, she won't have a leg to stand on.
When did she buy her house (check with the Land Registry on line, it will cost a few quid) If she bought with your bath sharing her sewer then that is her problem.
Did you buy the house with a HIP (probably not) but such drains were a HIP requirement.

Finally this autumn the local sewerage company (usually the same as the local water company but not always) takes over responsibility for shared sewers (Google for more information and Local Authorities saying only they know the history of where the shared sewage branches are buried.)

So stall her until then and suggest she telephones their call centre in India to complain as it won't be "her" pipe any more.

If you really want to waste money on the legal route and create an official dispute to blight the future sale of your house, then check here for others experiences.
http://www.gardenlaw.co.uk/



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