Dynorod

skankingpigeon

Hi,

I recently had Dynorod come out to unblock my drains, after having a slow draining toilet for a week.

Dynorod do not charge a call out charge, and provide a flat fee based on the service you require.

The technician came out, and started work on the drains in the driveway. Only after he cleared the blockage, did he tell us it was in the shared drains. After the event, I researched this, and found that these shared drains are the responsibility of the local water company, and not of the homeowner.

It seems wrong, that they would not disclose that to me before the service? Surely if the blockage is in the shared pipe, then they should inform me that the water company should come out to fix it?

What are your thoughts? I have no problem paying a call out charge for them to tell me that, but thats not their model, so I think they shouldn't have cleared the blockage, and I shouldnt be charged anything.

Alter_ego

Presumably you told them the service you required? If so you have to pay for it.

-taff

You should have checked before you called someone, like I should have a few weeks ago. In between calling someone and them coming out, I discovered this after some googling. I was not very happy with myself but I blame brain fog for that one.

However, I know now and so do you, and now you also know the difference between a blocked drain and a blocked toilet
win win

Jackmydad

Been there 40 years ago. Blocked and overflowing drain in the drive of our first house. I was working shifts, and called out Dynorod in a bit of a panic. To be fair they came and cleared the problem easily with a set of rods, and we paid them.
Mate who worked for the council told me later that it was most likely the council's problem.
I bought a set of drain rods myself after that!
Put it down to experience. You called out Dynorod, so you had to pay for what they did.

EachPenny

skankingpigeon wrote: »

Dynorod do not charge a call out charge, and provide a flat fee based on the service you require.

Did they offer a "Visit site, advise on whether shared drains" service for a flat fee?

The drain clearing business model I'm familiar with charged a callout fee plus a rate per half-hour. People who had shared drains which where the responsibility of the water company would be hit with the callout plus 30 minutes just for that 'advice'. They then had the option of paying another 30 mins to get the blockage cleared, or else have to call the council and wait for them to come.

Interesting they have changed their approach.

teneighty

Is it possible they did not know it was a shared drain until after they cleared it?

Usually if the drain is blocked the manhole upstream of the blockage is full of sewage so it is impossible to see what branch drains are feeding in to the main drain.

Louison

You might be able to claim the money back from your water company. A few years ago I had a blockage which I paid Drain Doctor to clear, however I had to call them back twice within a fortnight, which cost them money as they had guaranteed the original job for a set period, so they did a cctv survey and discovered a line coming in from a neighbouring property. With the cctv evidence I was eventually able to get a refund from the water company and they have taken responsibility for clearing subsequent blockages.

EachPenny

Louison wrote: »

You might be able to claim the money back from your water company. A few years ago I had a blockage which I paid Drain Doctor to clear, however I had to call them back twice within a fortnight, which cost them money as they had guaranteed the original job for a set period, so they did a cctv survey and discovered a line coming in from a neighbouring property. With the cctv evidence I was eventually able to get a refund from the water company and they have taken responsibility for clearing subsequent blockages.

You were lucky. Some companies won't pay a penny if you employ a private contractor to carry out work on their sewers, some might offer a refund of the equivalent of what they pay for a clearance themselves.

They have to do this otherwise customers would just phone the company which offered to do the job the quickest regardless of cost and then just pass the bill onto the water company.

Deanston

Jackmydad wrote: »

Been there 40 years ago. Blocked and overflowing drain in the drive of our first house. I was working shifts, and called out Dynorod in a bit of a panic. To be fair they came and cleared the problem easily with a set of rods, and we paid them.
Mate who worked for the council told me later that it was most likely the council's problem.
I bought a set of drain rods myself after that!
Put it down to experience. You called out Dynorod, so you had to pay for what they did.

Unless it was a council property what's it got to do with them?

Jackmydad

Deanston wrote: »

Unless it was a council property what's it got to do with them?

Whether it was or not, what's it to you?
Trying to get the post count up for that new AE of yours?

EachPenny

Deanston wrote: »

Unless it was a council property what's it got to do with them?

Local Councils used to be the drainage authority. It was only in relatively recent times that local drainage was transferred to water companies. On transfer, most water companies contracted the maintenance and management work to the local authorities which had previously been responsible on an agency basis.

The water companies gradually took the work in-house, or gave it to private consultants. I'm sure some councils probably still operate drainage services on behalf of some of the water companies.

Local councils retained a wealth of knowledge about the drainage system - anyone who was working for a DLO in London in the 1990's would probably still be able to tell you which streets in that borough had shared drains and which were separate. They would also know the manholes which needed to be lifted if there was a regular blockage just by looking at the address.