Sewer not adopted by Thames Water

UnDelme

Thank you, will give it a go.

Suspect it will take some time though..

canaldumidi

If TW records show the sewer as being private, any call to them eg reporting a blockage will result in a "Not our problem- private sewer." as that's what their records show.

What you need to do is engage with their legal dept and get them to adopt the sewer, at which point they'll update their records and respnd to call-outs.

Friend lives in a private road with 24 houses and a central private sewer down the centre of the road. It took 2 years of 'discussion', including solicitor's  letters quoting the relevant laws on adoption before TW finally adopted the sewer, dug up the road, fixed the sewer, and re-made the road.....

Section62

canaldumidi said:

What you need to do is engage with their legal dept and get them to adopt the sewer, at which point they'll update their records and respnd to call-outs.

That shouldn't be necessary (unless it is one of the special 0.1% cases) - the adoption almost certainly happened on 1 October 2011.  The problem is simply with the records not being updated correctly.

The 0.1% (a made-up figure) represents special cases such as 'opt-outs' (mainly railways and crown land) and also private sewers that were still under construction between the relevant dates and weren't subesquently adopted.  There's no indication from the OP's posts that any of the exceptions apply in this case.

canaldumidi

Section62 said:

canaldumidi said:

What you need to do is engage with their legal dept and get them to adopt the sewer, at which point they'll update their records and respnd to call-outs.

That shouldn't be necessary (unless it is one of the special 0.1% cases) - the adoption almost certainly happened on 1 October 2011.  The problem is simply with the records not being updated correctly.

The 0.1% (a made-up figure) represents special cases such as 'opt-outs' (mainly railways and crown land) and also private sewers that were still under construction between the relevant dates and weren't subesquently adopted.  There's no indication from the OP's posts that any of the exceptions apply in this case.

In my friend's case (as described), TW did not adopt in 2011, and for 2 years argued they should/would not do so. It was not an obvious opt-out - it was a prvate road with a communal sewer serving multipe private houses.

As I said, eventually they agreed it should have been adopted.....

UnDelme

Just an update on this - following @Section62 advice, emailed TW complaints dept, and they emailed back saying that there was a mistake in their mapping, and sewer is indeed public.

Proved it by calling TW to unblock it (again..), they came without questions this time.

Section62

UnDelme said:

Just an update on this - following Section62 advice, emailed TW complaints dept, and they emailed back saying that there was a mistake in their mapping, and sewer is indeed public.

Proved it by calling TW to unblock it (again..), they came without questions this time.

Useful feedback, thanks for the update.

One of the possible reasons the sewers were shown as 'private' is because they were (ex)LA properties.  Historically local authorities were responsible for drainage as well as other functions such as housing.  If shared drains were provided as part of a council housing development, the drains usually remained the responsibility of the local authority housing department rather than the drainage department.  They were the council's 'private drains' rather than their 'public' ones.