Surface water drainge problems

denisec60

I wasn't sure where to post this; if not the correct forum, could it please be moved? Thank you.

As per the thread title, I wonder if anyone could advise please? It's fairly complex but I'll keep it as brief as possible. I live in a terrace of four cottages. Rainwater guttering runs along the front elevation of all four cottages; the downpipe is situated down the front of my property and rainwater discharges into (or is meant to) a soakaway - that's using the term loosely as in fact we've discovered it's just a small'ish hole that's been dug out and backfilled with gravel and it sits directly against the front elevation of the house. The surrounding area is soil covered with pea shingle.

It's been cleaned out several times but is clearly insufficient for the amount of water running from the roofs which results in flooding against the front wall of the house. At times of heavy rain, the water backs up the pipe and overflows the guttering, running down the front of the house. As a result we have a fairly severe damp/mould problem a couple of feet up, from the floor, on the inside (our lounge) of the wall. I suspect it's doing the house foundations no favours either.

Having spoken to the relevant water authority, they are no longer able to drain this water into public drains because their "surface water flooding programme" (to quote them) is already overwhelmed and they stopped doing this for residential properties where surface water flooding is a problem a couple of years ago.

Having consulted a few drainage professionals, I'm told that a new soakaway would need to be located at least 6 metres away from the front of the house - not possible as the frontage is a third of this length. The neighbour (whose property is also affected to some extent) suggested simply running a pipe along the bottom of the boundary fence to discharge the water onto the public footpath; clearly, that's illegal and a non-starter.

Can anyone give me any pointers please on where I go from here?

denisec60

As a p.s. the reason I said it was complex is that there's a separate issue but to the rear of the properties. I have in my possession an old old covenant (from the 1960's) with plans, showing the location of two cesspits (located in the rear gardens of two of the properties) and detailing how waste/water is drained, etc, and who is responsible for maintenance, etc, and costs.

One neighbour states there is a cesspool near the bottom of his garden, the other hasn't been found. Two of the gardens (not my own) have problems in specific areas of incredibly 'spongy' wet ground - so bad, you couldn't walk on them - and neither are in low lying areas of the gardens, just completely flat.

We cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, believe that the four houses weren't, at some point, connected to the public sewer as neither cesspit have been emptied/cleared for at least 8 years, i.e. that's the length of time the first current resident of these houses moved in.

We are, all four, charged by the water authority for surface water drainage. Clearly, that shouldn't be the case for at least the front of the properties. Having spoken to the water authority this morning, they have no record of the properties ever having been connected to the public sewer. I cannot believe this didn't happen at some point in the past - we would surely have a major issue with sewerage/the cesspits by now?

stef73

Your house is the same as mine 4 houses all discharge into a drain pipe on my house. We dont have a soak away and it used to just run down my drive to the road making my drive covered in green slippy moss.
I however ignored the legallity and ran a drain pipe to the road.

cur_2

Do you have a neighbour next door that is connected to the sewer system? If so and if you get on well with them, you could ask if you could connect a drainage pipe from your downspout to their drainage pipe.

I went through the same sort of thing, my rainwater once emptied onto the road via clay pipes and a path gully. Then someone decided to raise the level of the road/path causing the water to run towards my house.

Soakaways are good in theory, not great in practice. Once full they take ages to drain and not everyone has the space to use one.

Our neighbours house was built 30 years ago and lucky for me was happy to have our rainwater running through their drains.

Hope you get things sorted.