3 houses' rain water disappearing into my garden

mart.vader

If the pipe is broken under the public footway, it is their responsibility to fix it.

cyclonebri1

Has it ever run out of the drain, and is the drain exit visible?.

Could it simply be a soakaway in your garden? (well it is at the moment anyway).

Incidentally all soakaways must be 5metre from the nearest property wall to give you an idea how leaking water can affect the walls.

usignuolo

I had an interesting variation on this in my former house, which was in a small terrace of around 6 houses. There was a rainwater gutter running along the front of the entire terrace just under the roof line and there appeared to be a down rainwater pipe on every other house, leading down to a drain in the front garden next to the small bay window they each had. I had such a downpipe on the front of my house which I shared with next door's roof. Never gave it much thought.

Then one day, after a very strong thunderstorm, the drain in my front garden overflowed. When I went outside to investigate I noticed that historically, the terrace house at the end had removed their downpipe (which should have led to a drain in the outside passage by their house) and just "closed" the outlet. As a result the first downpipe the rainwater reached was mine, and as we were on a small slope and my house was a bit lower than the one on the end, it ran there quite quickly.

In the storm the water had rushed along the terrace and down my downpipe so rapidly that it overflowed. I then noticed that another house had put a bottom extension on their pipe where it met the drain so that any overflow led out across their front garden (the terrace had very short gardens) and its output went over the pavement......

MarkBargain

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

Has it ever run out of the drain, and is the drain exit visible?.

Could it simply be a soakaway in your garden? (well it is at the moment anyway).

Incidentally all soakaways must be 5metre from the nearest property wall to give you an idea how leaking water can affect the walls.

I hadn't taken much notice of it before, so suspect it has not worked for many years in terms of water flowing into the road. The outlet is visable (clearly blocked) and there is a public drain a few metres downhill along the road.

My garden is under two metres long, so definitely not five.

MarkBargain

The Council replied as follows...

[FONT=&quot]Private house owners (or landlords) are not licenced contractors allowed to carry out repairs to rain water pipes within the highway. If after having carried out maintenance to the pipes within the property boundary, and any blockage beyond the boundary wall still appears to be present, then an investigation will be authorised to the section of rain water pipes within the highway (i.e. under the footway). Drainage rods are relatively inexpensive to hire from any hire firm or companies such as "The Drainage Doctor" can assist. It is the responsibility of [the two neighbours] to check their network before Highways attend.[/FONT]

The trouble is, my downpipe goes into the ground and to unblock it I would need to use a drainage rod from the road side (i.e. unblocking under the public footpath before I got to my garden - I don't know how far along there is it blocked)

cyclonebri1

MarkBargain wrote: »

The Council replied as follows...

[FONT=&quot]Private house owners (or landlords) are not licenced contractors allowed to carry out repairs to rain water pipes within the highway. If after having carried out maintenance to the pipes within the property boundary, and any blockage beyond the boundary wall still appears to be present, then an investigation will be authorised to the section of rain water pipes within the highway (i.e. under the footway). Drainage rods are relatively inexpensive to hire from any hire firm or companies such as "The Drainage Doctor" can assist. It is the responsibility of [the two neighbours] to check their network before Highways attend.[/FONT]

The trouble is, my downpipe goes into the ground and to unblock it I would need to use a drainage rod from the road side (i.e. unblocking under the public footpath before I got to my garden - I don't know how far along there is it blocked)

Well then it's simple, just rod it from the road, get a car parked there for protection, if you find the blockage before the rods enter your property then it's theirs.

And to be honest if the garden is only 2mtres long it wouldn't be much of a job to fix if it was blocked your side ;)

mart.vader

MarkBargain wrote: »

The Council replied as follows...

[FONT=&quot]Private house owners (or landlords) are not licenced contractors allowed to carry out repairs to rain water pipes within the highway. If after having carried out maintenance to the pipes within the property boundary, and any blockage beyond the boundary wall still appears to be present, then an investigation will be authorised to the section of rain water pipes within the highway (i.e. under the footway). Drainage rods are relatively inexpensive to hire from any hire firm or companies such as "The Drainage Doctor" can assist. It is the responsibility of [the two neighbours] to check their network before Highways attend.[/FONT]

I'm astounded that this is the Council line.

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

Well then it's simple, just rod it from the road, get a car parked there for protection, if you find the blockage before the rods enter your property then it's theirs.

)

I'm even more astounded that this is the procedure approved by the Council, for the householder to lie in the highway behind a car to rod out part of the highway drainage system, that doesn't belong to them. The Council operatives wouldn't do it, without better protection than that

MarkBargain, even if it's a quiet street, take care.

lstar337

I have seen drain inspectors cut a small hole in the downpipe and inspect using a camera and then repair afterwards. Is this an option?

Another option, just tell the council you have rodded it your end and there is still a blockage, they can then send out somebody to do their end which will probably fix your end in the process.

MarkBargain

I will have a go at cleaning it, just so long as they don't later blame me for breaking the pipe when I poked it with a rod!

I wrote to the Council just to make sure I understand properly and they responded:

[FONT=&quot]As stated previously, it is the responsibility of the house owner (landlord) to keep the rain water pipe clear of blockages (and if applicable, establish where a blockage is occurring, either within the property boundary or in the highway). If a fracture to the RWP within the highway section can be proved (by either a photograph or with the highway inspector in attendance), then the broken section of RWP in the highway will be repaired by the approved contractor. An order to replace the missing RWP kerb shoe outlet will be issued to the contractor.
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