Neighbour's builders have blocked shared drain

DonGotti

Hello, hope this is the right place to post.

I share a drain at the back of my terraced house with my neighbour. He is currently having building works done before letting out the property again. Yesterday I noticed the drain was overflowing with water and when I prodded the drain grid cover with a stick the water slowly drained away and the cause of the blockage was that his builders appear to have been pouring concrete for some unknown reason through the drain.

I spoke to him yesterday morning and he said he'd look into it after initially claiming the concrete was old. When I explained it was not like that before as I had cleaned the drain out a few weeks as his tenants kept putting food down the kitchen sink causing it to block, he dropped that argument.

This evening nothing has been done. There is a small gap in the grid that isn't covered by concrete that allows water to flow away but most of it is covered and water is flowing away slowly. I was just wondering what my rights are in this situation?

a.turner

Shared drain so get onto the water company.

neilmcl

As above, the shared drain is the responsibility of your water company so you need to contact and let them deal with it.

DonGotti

Ok thanks but I thought the drain becomes the responsibility of the owners because it's within the boundary of the property?

mattyprice4004

DonGotti wrote: »

Ok thanks but I thought the drain becomes the responsibility of the owners because it's within the boundary of the property?

No, this changed some time ago. Time to call the water co

neilmcl

DonGotti wrote: »

Ok thanks but I thought the drain becomes the responsibility of the owners because it's within the boundary of the property?

Not with a shared lateral drain it's not, the water/sewage companies have taken over the ownership and responsibility for these since 2011.

Manxman_in_exile

neilmcl wrote: »

Not with a shared lateral drain it's not, the water/sewage companies have taken over the ownership and responsibility for these since 2011.

Just out of interest, and for idiots like me, can anyone provide a link explaining this?

shaun_from_Africa

Manxman_in_exile wrote: »

Just out of interest, and for idiots like me, can anyone provide a link explaining this?

This should help:

https://www.ofwat.gov.uk/nonhouseholds/supply-and-standards/responsibility-supply-pipes/

It shows that the pipes/drains from the houses to the shared pipe/drain (greenish colour) are the responsibility of the householder but the shared sections (magenta and turquoise) are the responsibility of the water company.

Manxman_in_exile

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

This should help:

https://www.ofwat.gov.uk/nonhouseholds/supply-and-standards/responsibility-supply-pipes/

It shows that the pipes/drains from the houses to the shared pipe/drain (greenish colour) are the responsibility of the householder but the shared sections (magenta and turquoise) are the responsibility of the water company.

OK. Stupid question probably, but why is it necessary to distinguish between the magenta and turquoise pipes - their function seems the same to me? (Was it significant pre-2011?)

neilmcl

Manxman_in_exile wrote: »

OK. Stupid question probably, but why is it necessary to distinguish between the magenta and turquoise pipes - their function seems the same to me? (Was it significant pre-2011?)

Yes, the "turquoise" pipe would've previously been the responsibility of the property owner but as it's actually shared between 2 properties the ownership of that part is now the responsibility of the utility provider.