3 houses' rain water disappearing into my garden

anotherbaldrick

londonTiger wrote: »

I have the downpipes in my property. If I don't clean my gutters and they're completely caked and blocked up, it will block the downpipe for them, so their gutters will overflow and possible break from the weight it is under.

So there is a communal responsibility as well.

Also one of the neighbour wanted to pitch in and get 5 houses gutter cleaning done in one go. As the fixed overhead for doing 1 house alone and 5 houses together is the same. So it was supposed to save money. But our gutters are clean so if we opt out it becomes more expensive for them.

The gutter will normally be laid to a fall, so if the downstream person does not clean his gutters he will get the benefit of the overflow

lstar337

anotherbaldrick wrote: »

The gutter will normally be laid to a fall, so if the downstream person does not clean his gutters he will get the benefit of the overflow

Surely it would overflow at the point of blockage (boundary of the last and second from last house), and therefore pour into the garden of the second from last house?

Unless they clear just inside the boundary, then it'll just pour into the offenders garden!

londonTiger

lstar337 wrote: »

If yours are clean then surely it is pointless for you to pay anything?

I assume that if yours are clean then you must have either cleaned them yourself or paid somebody to do it at an earlier point in time. If that's the case, then you are paying twice!

OK maybe clean is not the right word. You just can't see anything from ground level. Neighbours have hedges growing from the gutters - i kid you not.

londonTiger

lstar337 wrote: »

Surely it would overflow at the point of blockage (boundary of the last and second from last house), and therefore pour into the garden of the second from last house?

Unless they clear just inside the boundary, then it'll just pour into the offenders garden!

Yep as above, there's so much dirt in the gutter that plants have started to grow in it. It's all hanging out of the gutter so I'm sure if it rains heavy it probably overflows and spashes down - luckily the terraces also have small roof over the front doors as well. The weight is probably going to cause damage to the gutter in the long term.

anotherbaldrick

lstar337 wrote: »

Surely it would overflow at the point of blockage (boundary of the last and second from last house), and therefore pour into the garden of the second from last house?

Unless they clear just inside the boundary, then it'll just pour into the offenders garden!

Yes and where it has not been cleaned (your neighbours) is where it will block and overflow.

2013yearofthehouse

WobblyDog wrote: »

This is my understanding:

I don't think the rules distinguish between pipes carrying rainwater and pipes carrying "foul" water (toilets etc.).

Pipes that serve only one property are called "drains", even if they carry sewage, and are the property owner's responsibility.

Pipes that serve multiple properties are called "sewers", even if they only carry rainwater. They are generally the responsibility of the water board, even if on private land.

This link sort of helps:
http://www.clearawaydrainage.co.uk/responsible.html

Sorry to go off topic, but your post interested me. We live in a detached house, yet the pipework from one of our next door neighbours joins up with our pipework before going into the main drain for the street - this means the diagrams on the link don't really fit, detached house, but the drain set up is more like the semi-detached situation. So are the diagrams just a simplified likelihood and it's not actually house type that is important, but the drain setup? So even though our house is detached the drain/sewer responsibility would be as if we were semi-detached?

To complicate matters further, the other 3 houses in the street all have drains that run in to each other also, before joining the main drain for the street. Unfortunately, being the house roughly in the middle distance-wise the main drain that all the pipework for all the houses connects to is in our front garden, so are we responsible for everything or just the section of pipework that directly serves our house?

Whenever the "communal" sections of pipework get blocked we usually end up having to unblock them ourselves or we have two neighbours that don't mind doing it if it's from their direction. Another will do it begrudgingly as they claim it can't be them causing the blockage and the other flat out refuses to do anything as they don't think it has anything to do with them (they are the furthest away). We have the smallest number of people (both adults) and we know we don't put anything down the toilet that would block up the drains, plus our direct pipework for us has never blocked. The other houses have at least 2 adults/2 children each or 4 adults and the house we are connected to before the pipework goes to the main drain have extended several times and now have 10 occupants. We're worried if anything major happened (and feel it might as neighbours trees are planted directly next to some of the pipework, the roots have wrapped around and grown along inside one pipe - we've asked them about cutting down or sorting out as roots have also cracked our drive in two, but they are being slow about doing anything and we have just had to do what we can on our property to slow the growth) no-one would help us and we'd be responsible for all costs, even if not our fault.

MarkBargain

An update - I phoned the water board and they said rain water is not their responsibility, so they suggested I call the County Council Highways Department. The Council agreed it is under their remit, so it has been logged as a call and I await contact from them.

MarkBargain

The Council have responded: "We need to establish if the rain water pipe between the kerb out let and the boundary wall has been damaged by a utility company. If this is not the case, it is the responsibility of the owner of the property to keep this section clear."

Has any other landlord had to dig up a public pavement to repair water pipes? Surely it is not my responsibility to deal with the water outflow from three houses?

mart.vader

MarkBargain wrote: »

The Council have responded: "We need to establish if the rain water pipe between the kerb out let and the boundary wall has been damaged by a utility company. If this is not the case, it is the responsibility of the owner of the property to keep this section clear."

Has any other landlord had to dig up a public pavement to repair water pipes? Surely it is not my responsibility to deal with the water outflow from three houses?

You will not be allowed to dig up the public pavement (unless you engage a specially licensed contractor). As to whether you are expected to "rod" the pipe between the edge of your property and the public drain, I seriously doubt it.

I suspect that when the Council attend and actually look at the situation they will admit that it's their responsibility.

You say that water is going in, but not coming out ? OK, but is it doing any damage to your property ? Is it coming into your cellar ? Or Is it simply disappearing under the footpath ? If so, let the Council find out where the water is going, and who, if anyone, damaged the pipe, and let them deal with it.

MarkBargain

mart.vader wrote: »

You say that water is going in, but not coming out ? OK, but is it doing any damage to your property ? Is it coming into your cellar ? Or Is it simply disappearing under the footpath ? If so, let the Council find out where the water is going, and who, if anyone, damaged the pipe, and let them deal with it.

I suffered a damp problem in the living room last year and had to pay £1,400 to fix it. Whether a high level of rain water in the garden was a factor, I don't know. Maybe. I don't have a cellar.

The water could be flowing under the public footpath rather than my garden, in which case it is not my concern really as it would flow away.

Hopefully the Council will agree to come out and take a look rather than just say it is my responsibility!