Who's responsible for drains ?

Mgman1965

I live in a 1930's semi detached house and there is a drain in the middle of the front shared by me and next door.

The drain runs down the boundary about 4m between us through our front gardens and out into to the street to the main street drains (we assume).

The drain has become very slow to drain and in heavy downpours our front gardens now flood.

In the street right in front of the drain is a very large council owned silver birch tree, and I and a local builder believe the drain is blocking with roots from the council tree and he says will be a big (and expensive) job to correct likely digging up the path and into the road.

My elderly (94yr old) neighbour is now in a care home and the now empty house will eventually be sold.

Who would be responsible for sorting the drain as the council tree appears to be the cause and the root ingress not on my land but in the street.

Stubod

We recently had a drain problem and called out our waterboard. They advised that they would come and check / clear it, but if it was on "our" property they advised a charge of £110, but if "outside" of any property obviously they would do it at their cost. (They use subcontractors sometimes anyway).

Their contractor turned up, checked it all out and confirmed it was not on private land and cleared it......result!

NSG666

The following is copied from Yorkshire Water's web site. It's slightly different to what Stubod has said in that it is not a matter of whose property it is on, they become responsible for shared drains regardless of whose property they are on. Assuming they both go into the public sewer rather than a shared septic tank. You can check your own water authority web-site

If there's a blockage in a drainage pipe or sewer, responsibility for fixing it depends on where the problem is.

As a homeowner, you're responsible for:

• all the pipes inside the property. These include toilets, sink drains and any outdoor guttering or pipes attached to the property. 
• the section of pipe that goes into the ground, either directly or into a gully close to the property, until it reaches a shared drainage pipe or public sewer.

Yorkshire Water's responsibility 

At Yorkshire Water, we're responsible for:

• drains shared between more than one property
• drains outside of the property boundary 
• public sewers.

Mgman1965

Ahhh, so not the council I need to contact.   Never thought of the water company.

Pok3mon

Water companies tent to be very good and fix blockages quick because if it is their fault it can be a much bigger cost. With the kit they have normally cleared in a few minutes. If the drain is shared it wont normally be your problem but will be free via the water company.

TripleH

Yes, parents had an issue with their cellar flooding when it rained. This was due to storm drains being blocked and over flowing

It took years to resolve. I would advise being firm and patient BUT to keep regularly chasing this up. Be a nuisance but a nice friendly one that they want to help than one they are happy to let suffer.