Blimey more problems, help needed ASAP please

sacha28

We've just got back from a day out with the kids and have found raw sewage running down our side path from a manhole cover in our back garden :eek::eek:

We spoke to our neighbour to ask if he had an emergency number and it transpired that this had happened 3 times in the year previous to our moving in. This was backed up by logs that the water company had on their system (there was absolutely no pun intended!!!).

Who is responsible for the emergency call out charge, us or the LL?

jjlandlord

Likely no charge as sounds like it should be the water company's responsibility.

sacha28

Thanks jj, that has put our mind at rest

bigadaj

It will be determined by whose land it is on.

If you are renting it's not your issue, unless you have done something reckless to block it. If it's on the land as part of the property it's your landlords problem, if it's public sewer then it's the statutory undertakers issue.

If this has happened more than a couple of times then it should be resolved, probably by replacing the pipe.

jjlandlord

Even if on the property's land it will likely be the water company's responsibility unless it is the drain for that very property (seems unlikely from OP's description). In that latter case, indeed it will be the landlord's responsibility.

Sewers (that's 2 or more merged drains) and drains outside property's boundary are now all the water company's responsibility.

bigadaj

jjlandlord wrote: »

Even if on the property's land it will likely be the water company's responsibility unless it is the drain for that very property (seems unlikely from OP's description). In that latter case, indeed it will be the landlord's responsibility.

Sewers (that's 2 or more merged drains) and drains outside property's boundary are now all the water company's responsibility.

Sort of.

I live in a semi and the foul sewers from adjacent non attached houses combine and flow beneath one driveway, mine in this case.

I doubt if any problems with this would see the statutory undertaker taking responsibility for the drain/ sewer beneath my drive.

I use the term statutory undertaker advisedly as it's not always the water company depending on where you live.

jjlandlord

bigadaj wrote: »

Sort of.

I live in a semi and the foul sewers from adjacent non attached houses combine and flow beneath one driveway, mine in this case.

I doubt if any problems with this would see the statutory undertaker taking responsibility for the drain/ sewer beneath my drive.

Not 'sort of': Absolutely they would. This is their responsibility by law.

As it happens I am in a similar situation and the sewer that runs on my property, below my side extension, and under my driveway was blocked: they cleared it up as part of their responsibility without charging anyone.

G_M

It would only be the tenant's liability if it was shown the T had caused the blockage.

Do you or your family flush anything down the loo other than human waste and loo paper?

Nappies/sanitory towels are classic addional items people sometimes flush, but shouldn't, as these can cause blockages.

bigadaj

jjlandlord wrote: »

Not 'sort of': Absolutely they would. This is their responsibility by law.

As it happens I am in a similar situation and the sewer that runs on my property, below my side extension, and under my driveway was blocked: they cleared it up as part of their responsibility without charging anyone.

Interesting I didn't know that.

The law seems to have changed a couple of years ago, and apparently we were all informed in writing; I don't recall receiving anything but I may have just assigned it to the bin on the assumption it was an attempt at selling another expensive insurance policy by a major utility provider.

Davesnave

From South West Water:
Private sewers : On 1 October 2011, the responsibility for many private sewers and lateral drains which drain to a public sewer and extend beyond your property boundary transferred to water and sewerage companies.

Before the transfer, private sewers were the responsibility of their owners - generally the owners and occupiers of the properties they served.

Unless a problem occurred, many householders were unaware that they were responsible for a private sewer, especially when it continued beyond their property boundary. Where problems did occur, repair costs could be high.

To help ease the burden in these situations and increase environmental protection, the Government decided that the fairest solution was to transfer ownership of these private sewers to water and sewerage companies.

Good news for those with historic problems.

My elderly father used to experience the scenario described above. Neighbours made sympathetic noises, but blockages and overflows into the garden continued, ....until I installed a reinforced, bolt-down manhole cover.

Then it became someone else's problem.

sacha28

Thanks guys for all of your responses

The sub-contracted firm arrived near midnight last night and found the blockage 2 doors down. It was caused by 2 things.....
1) It's apparently a fibre pipe (?) lay down in the 70's that is well known to blister, causing things to deposit on these blisters blocking the drain. and 2) Someone in the row of houses has chucked loads of cooking fat (looks like lard apparently) down their sink which has gone hard and collected on a rather large blister in the pipe. How annoying, and there is no way of knowing which house is at fault.