Drain Blocked Any Advice Welcomed Please....

JimmyPie_2

Dear All,

I'm a newb so please be gentle.

The drain leading from my kitchen sink/washing machine seems to be blocked, nothing else goes down this drain into the manhole cover area with toilet/bath/kitchen/guttering in it.

I made the expensive mistake today calling in DynoRod....Basically they guy has tried to flush the drain from the small outlet grill on floor outside the wall by the sink and from man hole cover...but to no avail. I believe he was trying to tell me that the drain had been repaired before previous to when I had moved in and that the water he's tried to flush from outside kitchen wall drain to main manhole cover outlets is not budging...and may be seeping slight around the pipe....

Here's my quandary....I've brought the Maisonette in January 07...it is ex local authority.... I believe some parts of the building are covered by council and some by separate buildings. I believe the upstairs flat outlets go through this man hole opening in my garden also.....House is built 1977

Does anyone know or in similar situation that can I ask my council to do this or do I have to proceed and make repair through insurance...

I'm a first time buyer and it's all a little lost on me where I stand before I plow in and make more mistakes....

Any help appreciated.

All the best.

Jimmythepie

tanith

I am no expert but my guess would be if other council owned properties use the same drain and its blocked you could call the council and they would probabely have to deal with it... they may want a contribution from you but that would be cheaper than trying to deal with it alone .. did the Dynorod man not advise you as to what to do?

We used to live in council property and had the communal drain covers in our garden and even after we purchased the house they still came and unblocked the drains for us and didn't charge us at all.... but most of the other houses were still council owned....

g33za

this is exactly why you will probably be paying a service charge. The council should probably be able to sort it.

cattie

You could try phoning the water company if you have no joy with the council coming to sort it out for you.

A couple of years ago I had a problem with a blocked drain & got in a bit of a state over it.

Somebody phoned Thames water on my behalf & they sent someone out to look at it. I was told if the blockage was deemed to be my fault then there would be a charge, something in the region of £60+vat, but if blockage not caused by me then there would be no charge.

I didn't have to pay a penny & hate to think what I'd have had to pay a company such as Dynorod had I gone ahead & called them out.

JimmyPie_2

Thanks for your replies.....will definitely proceed down this route before making the same mistake again....

Cheers.
JimmyPie

BobProperty

JimmyPie wrote: »

......I made the expensive mistake today calling in DynoRod....

£105-£140?

JimmyPie wrote: »

.....Basically they guy has tried to flush the drain from the small outlet grill on floor outside the wall by the sink and from man hole cover...but to no avail. I believe he was trying to tell me that the drain had been repaired before previous to when I had moved in and that the water he's tried to flush from outside kitchen wall drain to main manhole cover outlets is not budging...and may be seeping slight around the pipe....

From that description you either have something solid in the pipework (you haven't had a falling out with anyone, especially a builder or plumber have you?) or a serious fault with the pipework. Has there been any building work done recently?
You should check with the council on their policy on drains and shared drains but you may have to resort to a CCTV survey to find out what's going on. That will most likely be worse than £140 too, sorry.

mrs_baggins

i work for LA and used to work on drainage problems so can offer a bit of advice although councils do vaet with charges etc. My council does have a call out charge (i think its about £70) which has to be paid by the person who calls it. Now it may or may not be your fault but in most cases you will not be able to prove anything. You can ask your neighbours upstream of the drain if they would contribute but they dont have to. the only sure way to get the neighbours to pay would be to call your council, they will determine who is on the drainage run, they will serve a notice on each of the neighbours then it will get done but it wont be instant and the notices will be logged against the property.

not sure about your legal responsibility re the council house but i guess its like any property-you bought it, a problem occurs and if no-one was previously aware of it then the new owner has to sort it. If it helps I had a drainage problem and got it sorted and piad for through my house insurance