Shared drain issue

TobyLarone

Hi All,

I live next to a currently empty council house. It has been empty for a year or so as the neighbour moved out with his family as he is 90 years old and now the council are slowly doing bits to the house (he was there 50 years!).

Anyway our outside drain is blocked and I know it is our problem as no one has lived next door for so long. It is shared with next doors bathroom (bath water etc). His kitchen sink has its own drain.

I have British Gas homecare with drains covered, however they do not cover shared drains.

My question is...if I spoke to the council do you think they would re-route the council house's water into a separate drain? Even if they did, the guttering is still shared and I doubt that they would re-route that too.

Thanks for your thoughts

Robin9

It's often a DIY job using a set of drain rods and muscle power.

TobyLarone

Robin9 wrote: »

It's often a DIY job using a set of drain rods and muscle power.

Yeah I might give it a go. only £25 for a set of rods.

Tom99

I thought shared drains were now the responsibility of the water co?

TobyLarone

Tom99 wrote: »

I thought shared drains were now the responsibility of the water co?

Even if it is on private property?

whackham

Contact your water board. I had a similar issue just over a year ago with blocked shared drains. I contacted British Gas as I have Home cover with £50 excess. They sent Dyno-rod out who found the issue to be with the shared drains and told me he couldnt touch it. I contacted my water board who were out within the hour and cleared it at no charge. The water board guy told me to always contact them first instead of wasting my money.

Carrot007

TobyLarone wrote: »

Even if it is on private property?

Yes. Your only responsibility is if you are on the end and you just drain though other people/on to the road (which can get nasty is a block futher up is causing backing up, but then a camera should show that. just get a company that will go further than your boundry, some won't).

Carrot007

whackham wrote: »

The water board guy told me to always contact them first instead of wasting my money.

The logical solution unless you do it every day! They will happily tell you if it's not down to them. I have even had them come out out of goodwill when it is not their problem in the past.