Section 24 drain/sewer partial blockage, digging & United Utilities

chaotic_j

Hi guys,

To cut a long story short been having trouble with a drain overflowing, causing ingress of water into the cellar of our 1847-built terraced house.

Our neighbour jetted the drain, which alleviated the problem a bit but it came back nearly straight away. It happens when there is prolonged rain/heavy downpour.

The drain in question has running into it, rainwater from a very very large area on both our house and the two adjoining terraced properties basically we are taking nearly all of the water from either side into this drain which appears to lie at the lowest point in the system.

Due to this fact, it appears to be classed as a Section 24 sewer and so I got in touch with United Utilities whose responsibility it is and who have been here 6/7 days this week but still not resolved the matter.

They have jetted approx. 4 (or is it 5?) times and it is still partially blocked. They now say that they need to dig as there is no manhole on the back street to get better access to the pipes.

They say normally it is 4 weeks to dig, but in emergencies 2 weeks - this is a long time to wait and we will have a newborn in the house any day now. There is the potential for the problem to become much worse in the time we may have to wait.

I was wondering if anyone else had United Utilities (or perhaps other water companies) to dig their drain(s) and how long it took? and if that resolved your problem.

Is there any way we can speed up the process? They say that at all times there is a big backlog of digs to facilitate. I am worried about this and so is my partner. I have also read on the Internet another customer of United Utilities was told 28 days to dig, and 4 months later he was still waiting.

Thank you very much in advance.

mrs_baggins

The only thing I could suggest would be to contact your local council to see if they can unblock it in the meantime-however there will be a charge involved with this . They may also be able to advise on the other issue but doubt if they would be able to hurry things along. The fact they have agreed to do it is good though

dontgetcaught

0 -ring them and ask for a manager, get names, make notes of telephone calls etc, and explain what your situation is and what you propose to do, see below.
1 - involve environmental health... at your local council
2 - involve you local councillors local district and county
3 - contact the regulator which I think in this case is ofwat, could be environment agency, and make a complaint (if this does not work)

SplanK

can they not identify what the problem is by sending down a optic line? They should be able to identify where to dig and what they need to do which may speed up the job.

keystone

mrs_baggins wrote: »

The only thing I could suggest would be to contact your local council to see if they can unblock it in the meantime.....

If the water company can't clear the blockage where does the council going to get its magic wand from?

OP you just need to make yourself a complete nuiscance. Get it classified as an emergency. Insist they do a camera survey to find the precise location and just get on with it. Quote the imminent arrival, make noises about health hazard and EHO. They'll arrange the work just to shut you up if you make enough noise.

Cheers

chaotic_j

I managed to get the problem resolved by as keystone suggested, making a nuisance of myself i.e. constant pestering via text.

What really spurred them on was when I started to talk about compensation and then all of a sudden timely telephone calls were received, appointments were made and the contractors turned up the following Wednesday on time and resolved the problem within 4 hours (which included digging out and replacing the drain gulley itself)!

It was a struggle trying to find out what the blockage was however, the records state that the problem was a "collapsed drain at 37 metres" which has been resolved.

However after a few long phone calls and hearing back from the contractors themselves I'm told it was a build up of sand and silt at 37 metres or thereabouts which had occurred over time thus reducing the width of the pipe and causing a build up of water (or so they say!)

I think I need to get it in writing exactly what work was carried out and what the problem was.. for my future protection..

Does anyone know if I have a right to somehow request all the contractor notes and/or CCTV footage (if there is any)?