Shared Septic tank which isn't shared

circlemaker

grumpy chap - the guy who sold the property must be the one who blocked up the pipe, I say that as the person he sold it to would have had to dig up the foundations of the kitchen in order to place a brick in the pipe.....

circlemaker

prodave - theres no pump going from the tank

propertyrental

circlemaker said:

prodave - theres no pump going from the tank

Prodave said:

The fee was probably ongoing maintenance and a pump out of the tank, 

A 'pump out' is when a poo lorry comes and pumps the solid waste in the septic tank into the tanker and takes it away for environmentally approved disposal!

That's presumably what your £600 was for. £120 is about the right cost.

circlemaker

proprtyrental......oh, then yes effectively all the houses in this street and the surrounding lanes are illegally running off their water, the houses are mostly old though so I wonder if at the time of installation it was legal. There are a couple of places (on the surrounding lanes) where there is definately the smell of raw sewage in the ditches....I mean I am not a rich man but several thousand wipes me out, I have a friend who is a high end barrister I wonder if they can offer a legalistic way out of this, I hope so this was really not the way I wanted to enter into Christmas and the pain its prolonging is a somewhat anger inducing scenario.

circlemaker

incidentally, when we thought it was a collapsed drain the insurer said its not covered as its "wear and tear" as opposed to accidental damage. This seems counter intuative, if I put a pick axe through it its covered (even though I made the damage) whereas if it collapses due to age and not me damaging it, it's not covered....Its nuts

cr1mson

circlemaker said:

incidentally, when we thought it was a collapsed drain the insurer said its not covered as its "wear and tear" as opposed to accidental damage. This seems counter intuative, if I put a pick axe through it its covered (even though I made the damage) whereas if it collapses due to age and not me damaging it, it's not covered....Its nuts

But one is an accident (would not be covered if you did it delibrately) and one is just a part of home ownership that you can plan for. Insurance is designed to protect against predominantly unforeseen things.

propertyrental

circlemaker said:

proprtyrental......oh, then yes effectively all the houses in this street and the surrounding lanes are illegally running off their water, the houses are mostly old though so I wonder if at the time of installation it was legal. There are a couple of places (on the surrounding lanes) where there is definately the smell of raw sewage in the ditches..

Yes. Until recently the rules were very lax/non-existent, so septic tank outflows often went to all sorts of (basically inappropriate) places.

The latest regulations came out in 2015, and are called 'General binding rules: small sewage discharge to a surface water'. The new rules became law in 2020 so if the shared communal drain in the road leads to 'ditches' it almost certainly does not comply. You and all your neighbours should re-assess your sewage systems. At some point, if the EA becomes aware, fines could follow......

https://www.ukdpsolutions.co.uk/blog/2020-septic-tank-regulations

circlemaker

Yes cr1mson, I do not see how I could have seen that both the surveyer and an independant builder could both make the wrong call on the fact that they both said the waste water went to next doors septic tank....I know I am looking for a sympathetic outcome (rather than a somewhat imo pathetic outcome) from an insurer but if everyone around me, even my neighbour, the previous owner and two professionals and the drain guys didn't know where the waste water was going, it feels a little like I am being punished for something I also simply could not have known about?

circlemaker

propertyrental - I looked at the surveyers report on water drainage last night and it ALL appears to follow the correct procedure - thankfully, there are notes on how the run off water is treated by Southern Water at a facility. Not too sure what the smelly ditches in the surrounding lanes indicate though...

propertyrental

circlemaker said:

propertyrental - I looked at the surveyers report on water drainage last night and it ALL appears to follow the correct procedure - thankfully, there are notes on how the run off water is treated by Southern Water at a facility. Not too sure what the smelly ditches in the surrounding lanes indicate though...

Do you mean the surveyor you instructed when you purchased? He might have lifted a manhole cover and looked at the presumed shared useof the septic tank, but he wouldn't have investigated beyond tat.

Did you have a specific septic tank and drainage survey?
https://www.ukdpsolutions.co.uk/blog/2020-septic-tank-regulations

Good news that Southern Water are treating the run off in the communal drain - but does that not make it a mains sewage drain in which case is even a septic tank needed......I genuinely don't know!