Blocked drain in leasehold flats

retepetsir

Good evening

Had a 'lovely' surprise the weekend before last with the sewer drain at our apartment building getting blocked up on the Saturday morning and overflowing all over the entrance path :lipsrseal:shocked:

It's a small block of 14 leasehold flats with a variety of people living here, I'm one of around 5 that live in the flats that they own, the others rent off of their own landlords.

Now due to it being a Saturday and having no emergency number for the managing agents, we had to call out Dynarod directly, who then needed to call out another company with a bigger pump because the blockage was so bad :eek:.

It took 2.5 hours to get rid of the blockage and it cost £518. We (myself and another resident who sorted out the problem) had to stump up £300 in cash up front which has now been recovered from the managing agent.

However, my issue is with the cause of the blockage. They found over 20 disposable nappies along with numerous baby wipes in the drain backing everything up. Surely most people know you shouldn't dispose of them down the toilet?

There is one foreign family who lives in the block, above us, and they have a young child plus another aged around 4. Nobody else has children, either living alone or with their partner, but definitely no kids.

Should this £518 really come out of all of our service charges, or should they stump up the bill for causing the blockage?

A few of us have the feeling that they won't read the 'don't do it again' letter which we all received today.

Sorry for the rant, but its annoyed me :rotfl:

Yolina

I'd say because it's the first time it's happened, let it come out of the service charge but if it happens again and the people responsible can be traced then have them pay up. There will always be people doing things they shouldn't that affect other residents, I don't really see what difference that family being "foreign" makes tbh.

[Deleted User]

we used to get blocked drains when we lived in a 40 home leasehold development. The cause was always wipes, cotton buds, grease and so on. We managed ourselves via a committee and printed leaflets to post through doors. The owner/occupiers started to take note as they were the ones paying the charges but the tenants couldn`t give a monkeys. You could do with having a residents meeting, to include the tenants. It is all about educating them esp the ones who don`t know how the drainage system works in this country

evoke

Stick a copy of the letter up on the inside of your communal front door and highlight the relevant sections. This is what I used to do when I lived in a small block of flats. Also, get the managing agent to write a follow-up letter to ALL RESIDENTS (not the leaseholders/owners as is the default for letters) to explain that costs for future drain blockages will be recovered from those who cause the blockage.

I used to find that letters went to the home owner who had rented his/her flat out and couldn't care less. It's the occupier who needs to read the letter and understand it. Putting up a highlighted copy on the inside of the front door or a communal noticeboard (and dropping a copy into the letterbox of those who you think are causing the blockage) is the only way to drum messages into some people! You can take down the notices after a couple of weeks.

retepetsir

Sorry, I should add that I have no issue with them being foreign, but they speak little to know English so we wondered if they'd be able to understand the warning letter that was sent to every resident.

The drains have been blocked previously, so three times in the last 4 years. The last time it was plastic carrier bags being flushed down the toilet :eek:.

I believe these letters went to the owners and not the tennants (although as an owner I also live in the flat), so they may well not even have received the letter as they rent their flat.

I was thinking about highlighting the letter and putting a copy on the communal noticeboard (its only a small block) would be a good idea so I think I'll do that.

A £500+ bill for all is quite a significant chuck of money, particularly if it happens a few times.

Thanks for the help.

macman

Why do the managing agents not provide some sort of contact for such emergencies? That's what they're paid their fees for.

Yolina

Just make sure it's written in simple easy to understand language then The residents association/ management for our development puts general rules reminders through all the letterboxes of the flats a couple of times a year so that newly-moved in people (be it owners or tenants) are aware of things. The worst we've had in the nearly 13 years I've been there was cooking fat partially blocking drains. We've also got an on-site porter/building manager who can deal with repairs and stuff and we own the freehold so things get done!

macman

Include a picture of the nappies in the letter, maybe with a big red cross against it?

Katrinka

Instead of a letter, why not knock on the door and explain the problem to them? (the nappie-flushers) Nicely and politely, etc, they will most likely be mortified and never do it again.

retepetsir

macman wrote: »

Why do the managing agents not provide some sort of contact for such emergencies? That's what they're paid their fees for.

Exactly what I've been thinking.

I've come to realise that after living here for 3 years (2.5 as tenants, .5 as an owner) that they're pretty useless. They only provide their office number which is open 9am-1pm Monday to Friday .

I had this discussion with the other person that helped sort out the blockage, as we pay around £80 a month for maintenance each. They've apparently never had an emergency number. Because of that we both spent 4 hours of our Saturday sorting it out.

The latest letter from the managing agents has included a number, but just a direct one for Dynarod, not a general emergency number for anything else :mad:.

I might do that with the nappy picture :rotfl:. The drain was truly disgusting.

Katrinka - they don't seem to understand English. The last time I knocked on their door a couple of months ago was to pick up a parcel which had apparently been delivered to them. The wife thought I was a delivery man with a parcel for her outside, took me a while to explain that they actually had 'our' parcel in their flat . They're not too friendly either. Maybe I'll start with the letter then knock on their door next weekend?

keystone

Oh dear I think you may have just cost yourselves 500 notes for nothing. Responsibility for shared private drains transferred to the water company from 1st October 2011. Your Managing Agent should know this. That they don't know it is incompetant. Giving you a number for Dynorod for the future is madness - in fact calling them in the first place was madness. Even before 1st Oct you should have contacted the Water Co and left the Managing Agent to argue with them afterwards about who pays.

In your situation never contact them again. Call your water/sewerage company.

Not very helpful for now but hopefiully for the future - sorry.

Cheers