Surface water drain - responsibility

oxfordmark

Hey

I posted about this last year, but wanted to start a new thread.

We live in a mid-terrace, they all seem to have 1 down-pipe into the ground then a water surface drain out to the road. In this situation, a down pipe that takes the rain water from myself and the property in question is on his side of the boundary.

The landlord next door came over to state he wants to sort it out before his new tennants arrive. His builders said he needs a soak away and as his drive has block paving, would cost more to dig up and install, so wants to move the down over to our side of the boundary and route it under our grass! I dont know why he cant get the obviously blocked water surface drain looked at.

I said no to the soak away on our side, as i had done last year. He then said as he is taking half of our water down we could need to share the cost!

Question: As the water surface drain services his house and is the same on all the other terrace blocks on our road. Is it his sole responsibility?

Thanks

fezster

Most likely. It's also probably then his prerogative whether he allows you to use his down pipe or not. He could cut your side of the guttering off, and service only his own - in which case where would your water go?

I think there's an element of pragmatism required here.

I'd also be asking why every other property has a down pipe, but yours does not?

oxfordmark

fezster wrote: »

Most likely. It's also probably then his prerogative whether he allows you to use his down pipe or not. He could cut your side of the guttering off, and service only his own - in which case where would your water go?

I think there's an element of pragmatism required here.

I'd also be asking why every other property has a down pipe, but yours does not?

Hey

We do have a downpipe on our boundary, shared with the terraced house the other side.

EmmyLou30

It's a very common set up to not have a downpipe on your own property in terraces. In my mid terrace of 3 houses that has one staggered back slightly I have the downpipe on the front that serves me and one neighbour, and out the back he has the one that serves us both....the staggered house has pipes front and back for himself. Your neighbour is not allowed to just block off your section of guttering, he needs to sort out whatever issue he has on his side.

oxfordmark

EmmyLou30 wrote: »

It's a very common set up to not have a downpipe on your own property in terraces. In my mid terrace of 3 houses that has one staggered back slightly I have the downpipe on the front that serves me and one neighbour, and out the back he has the one that serves us both....the staggered house has pipes front and back for himself. Your neighbour is not allowed to just block off your section of guttering, he needs to sort out whatever issue he has on his side.

So we do not have to pay half of any costs to rectify this?

EmmyLou30

If it were me I certainly wouldn't be offering any money no! Just as I didn't ask my neighbour to contribute to the downpipe on my property even though it serves us both, wouldn't have even considered asking him. Your neighbour bought the house as it was and has to accept that. Maybe he should have fitted the soak away before the drive if it was going to be an issue or fitted correct drainage channels.

EmmyLou30

You may also want to check your deeds as they may state something about the rainwater goods and the responsibility to accept water from the neighbouring property. You clearly accept a different neighbours water yourself so your deeds may well have a similar line in them about it.

shaun_from_Africa

oxfordmark wrote: »

Hey

We do have a downpipe on our boundary, shared with the terraced house the other side.

If you can't find anything in the deeds about how the rainwater has to be disposed of, it might be possible to get someone to block off your guttering either at the boundary or where it actually feeds into the downpipe that is on the property in question.
Provided that you can get confirmation that the one remaining downpipe (the one on your land) will be sufficient to handle the runoff, this would then mean that the landlord next door can't use that fact that his downpipe is handling your rainwater runoff so you must help pay for the soakaway.

oxfordmark

Hey

Looking at the deeds better, it does say any shared guttering, drains etc shall be paid for equally. So we have written back to him to say before he just goes ahead with a soak away in his garden and charges us half (he said if we did the soakaway in ours, he would pay 100% of the costs, if in his we'd have to pay too), we would like to check if the down-pipe is serviced by a drain, out to the road. and if so get that unblocked. We are pretty sure this is the case.

Hoploz

What is the actual problem that needs solving?

I assume there is some sort of blockage that could be mended.

The builder is suggesting a soak away as that is the up-to-date way of doing things.

I don't get how it runs off from the downpipe onto the road, if there is a driveway or grass as a front garden. Do you have a pipe running right across your front garden??

If the deeds say costs should be shared then that is that. But you ought to have a say in what you're paying half of!

oxfordmark

Hoploz wrote: »

What is the actual problem that needs solving?

I assume there is some sort of blockage that could be mended.

The builder is suggesting a soak away as that is the up-to-date way of doing things.

I don't get how it runs off from the downpipe onto the road, if there is a driveway or grass as a front garden. Do you have a pipe running right across your front garden??

If the deeds say costs should be shared then that is that. But you ought to have a say in what you're paying half of!

Hello

It seems the owner next door is adamant that the down pipe just goes into the ground and goes nowhere else.

We believe that it does go into a drain, links up with the down-pipe on our property (shared with neighbors the other side) and goes into the road. This was confirmed by a neighbour opposite who is situated like us. Who also said its likely that the pipe from the neighbour in question is going across our garden and then into the road.

I don't think he has had a private drain company out to both confirm if there is a drain and if so, if it is blocked.