Shared drainage woes

tkwad

We are a terraced house. rain water from our roof and the next door neighbours comes down a shared drainpipe, which goes underground on our side of the boundry. Lately the water was overflowing very badly every time it rained. We were constantly flooded by the base of this pipe. We thought it was maybe blocked with leaves. Turns out the pipe was full of soil and root growth. We cleared as.much as we could until we realised the problem lay under our neighbours land. We spoke with them and were told they didn't have an issue as they weren't getting flooded and they refused to speak with us over it. We contacted our insurers who sent a company out who found the problem was a breach in the pipe under our neighbours property.
We are led to believe this is a shared legal responsibility to maintain?
Our neighbours have refused to involve their insurance and have insisted they will pay their half of the estimated cost after speaking with the company working on behalf of our own insurers.
Problem lies however with the fact they haven't paid and we are left with a rather unsightly deep hole at front of the property as the repair Is being held up by this lack of payment.
Our insurers are willing to complete the repair but have warned if that happens they may never actually recover next doors half and that would result jn the full cost being lodged against our insurance.
Any words of advice please as best way to proceed?
Thanks in advance

AdrianC

tkwad wrote: »

Our neighbours have refused to involve their insurance and have insisted they will pay their half of the estimated cost after speaking with the company working on behalf of our own insurers.
Problem lies however with the fact they haven't paid and we are left with a rather unsightly deep hole at front of the property as the repair Is being held up by this lack of payment.

You could pay the whole bill, then issue a claim against them for their half.

Our insurers are willing to complete the repair but have warned if that happens they may never actually recover next doors half and that would result jn the full cost being lodged against our insurance.

Will that actually make any difference whatsoever to your future premiums?

Ithaca

Do you have any of the agreements with your neighbours documented in writing?

AlexMac

It sounds like you have a reasonable case against your neighbour using the small claims process, especially as you probably have a paper-train (albeit only from you and your insurer)
http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/advice/when-should-i-use-the-small-claims-court
but before you do, ask if you really want to push it that far? If the whole claim is covered by your insurer as you imply, the financial impact on you might not be too bad (presumably any excess and loss of no claim discount?) . Whereas if it gets litigatious, you'd have to declare you had sued the neighbours from hell in any future sale of your house...? I know it seems unjust, but....
And whatever, don't let them get to you; the d0gsh1t through the letterbox is rarely the best solution!