Drainage nightmare!

Jacky09

I am hoping for some advice regarding our current drainage nightmare. Please stay with me, as this is a very long, and dull story but my husband and I are at the end of our tether now, and don’t know where to go from here….

1 - Accepted an offer on our house. During drainage inspection, it was discovered that the tank (on our land) is undersized, as it is shared between us and 2 other properties (installed over 60 years ago). We have also discovered that a further property connects to the drainage pipe (not our septic tank).

2 - Pipe from the tank runs over 150m across field behind our properties, belonging to a local estate. End of pipe is not where we were told it was when we purchased 2 years ago. Another property, also owned by estate connects to the pipe, which then drains onto rough ground, making it illegal. Our buyers are (quite rightfully) refusing to purchase whilst this is illegal.

3 - We have explored having a sewage treatment plant installed with a drainage field in the field behind us, however it isn’t possible as the percolation tests came back negative. Only options given to us now are

a) drainage mound installed in the field, meaning landowner will lose use of a large part of their field.
or
b) have a large sewage treatment plant installed to cover all 5 properties, have the end of the pipe made compliant by either a soakaway or running the pipe to a waterway, and share the cost with land owner and the 3 further properties on our row that connect to the pipe. Our drainage company have passed on these options directly from Environment Agency.

4 - Land owner is refusing to co operate, as they don’t believe they are not compliant without hearing it from the Environment Agency. They say that as they are not trying to sell their property, they shouldn’t be obliged to have the works done. We have paid hundreds of £’s for investigations and reports from our drainage company, who’s findings the land owners don’t agree with. They say they only want it in black and white from Environment Agency that the end of their pipe is non compliant. Obviously, getting anyone from Environment Agency to check this seems impossible, unless we report them for illegal discharge in which case we also shoot ourselves and our neighbours in the foot.

We are literally going around in circles, and now our buyers are getting stressed about it. This has been going on for over 3 months now, and our neighbours also aren’t best pleased with us. We understand how unexpected and stressful this must be for everyone, but we done feel we’ve caused a problem, we’ve just discovered it.

Has anyone had a similar situation, or had dealings with the EA that hasn’t just been basic advice from someone who doesn’t quite understand the situation? Or would anyone be willing to forward any contacts that would be able to give us further advice? As I said, the options our drainage firm have given us have come directly from Environment Agency, but the land owners are having none of it.

tacpot12

Can your drainage firm tell you the name of their contact at the EA? If so, you can probably email them and explain the problem, and get them to address the landowner directly.

I can't see that there is any benefit to the landower of making your drainage compliant, so you might have to pay for the changes between the houses that benefit, and the landowner's contribution my be limited to giving their permission.  

Jacky09

tacpot12 said:

Can your drainage firm tell you the name of their contact at the EA? If so, you can probably email them and explain the problem, and get them to address the landowner directly.

I can't see that there is any benefit to the landower of making your drainage compliant, so you might have to pay for the changes between the houses that benefit, and the landowner's contribution my be limited to giving their permission.  

Thanks for replying. I should have been clear, the land owner owns the 5th property on the same pipe, so therefore it’s also in their interests to have this work done. 

But today we did offer to cover that properties share of the cost, and the still won’t allow us to fix it. So I’m not sure where to go from here. 

And we asked our drainage firm for their contact but they wouldn't at the request of EA, but are happy to forward our concerns or queries on to them on our behalf. Will see how far they are willing to go…

ian1246

If the other properties aren't willing to rectify the drainage to make it legal, then I'd suggest just looking at a fix that works for just yourselves- even if it means they loose access to the tank which is on your property.

At the end of the day - any rights/legal agreements they may have with regards to the shared tank are surely trumped by the requirement for it to be legal & compliant? If they refuse to undertake the work required to make it lawful, it doesn't seem right that they can then force you to either continue to knowingly use a unlawful system, or otherwise be the one to foot 100% of the bill to make it right....

Maybe speak to your solicitor about where you stand legally with regards to the current agreements in place for the other properties to use the tank on your land and at what point those agreements become null & void when it comes to the refusal by the others to upgrade a illegal system to make it lawful...

...or alternatively, if you cant just terminate the existing agreement and replace the shared tank with one servicing just your property (and a drainage field on your land) what your options are to force the other members to undertake the work required to make it lawful.

Regardless - you can't just be forced by the other home owners to sit and have a illegal drainage system and an unsellable house. There will be recourse to get the situation sorted - do your deeds mention the sewage agreement? If do, what are the conditions?