Collapsed drain; Thames Water doing little to help

greensalad

I live in a Victorian semi-detached house. Two weeks ago my neighbour came over to tell me that they were having issues with blocked drains. We pulled up the manhole covers and deduced that was the manhole at the back of my property that is where the blockage is. We are shared drain, so he has one manhole in the back garden, it comes across the back of the houses to my back manhole, and then down the side of my house to another manhole on my property before going out into the street from there.

I called Thames Water who have determined it is their responsibility due to being shared. The following day someone came to "pump out" and clear the blockage. While they were clearing out, a sink hole was created right outside my front door, loads of earth crumbling in.

A few days after that someone came and managed to clear that blockage so things were running smoothly for a few days (aside from the giant hole directly outside my front door, covered with a bit of old board, and a barrier that I have to absolutely squeeze past to get access to my own house).

This was 10 days ago. The hole has doubled in size, and I now today have raw sewage coming up my drains. It's not yet entered the house, but I have 8 people on this system who are unable to use any water at present due to blocked drains and a risk of having raw sewage spill through my kitchen. 

I'm at the end of my tether. The hole has doubled in size in the last 10 days and no one has called back about fixing it. I call all the time, sit on hold for 2hrs, get told that I'm on the list for a call back, get no call back. This goes on and on. At the beginning I was told this whole job would be wrapped up in 10 days but I've had absolutely no communication about the growing sink hole of collapsing earth that is blocking the entire drain system.

What on earth do I do?

Davesnave

Phone Environmental Health at your council and get their interest and backing?

Jeepers_Creepers

Call Ofwat too, if you want a double-whammy.

Are you taking lots of pics of the jobbies?

Ganga

You could also phone the local paper if you have one ,makes good column inches even better with a picture of the sewage and irate home owners . 

Another_Level

The water company have been on site so hopefully they know what can be the absolute worst situation for the water company, customer's  will have other ideas but awfull small print avails.

Hopefully the property is not damaged or inaccessible due to the current situation. The property owner could  have plumbing or legal insurance.

Been there before and got the reply, yes your in the pipe line for repairs 

Davesnave

Another_Level said:

Been there before and got the reply, yes your in the pipe line for repairs 

How droll!

Another_Level

Davesnave said:

Another_Level said:

Been there before and got the reply, yes your in the pipe line for repairs 

How droll!

Davesnave said:

Another_Level said:

Been there before and got the reply, yes your in the pipe line for repairs 

How droll!

Unfortunately its a true response 

Ended up by fetching in an approved contractor and water company agreed to pay , which they did promptly 

  

DayDreamerandGeneralWaster

Include assessment on your foundations, collapsed drains can cause subsidence.