Drains.....Blocked pipes - who pays?

shell-collector

Hi all

A bit of a boring Q, but obviously someone may have been in a similar
situation.

We noticed today we have a blocked drain under the kitchen sink, noticed the
washing machine foam wasn't going down. Anyway, after a (£25!) trip to B&Q
to buy 30ft of rods, I lifted the manhole (bleugh) and it was full of c***.
I tried to unblock, but despite 30ft of rod, there's no movement. Now when
I `rod` 30 ft it takes us out of our property quite a way, which would lead
me to think the blockage obviously isn't on our property.

My Brother advised me to call the waterboard, which I have done, and they're
coming out tomorrow on their 24hr emergency call out, as there's raw
sewerage involved. So - they'll come tomorrow - but who will they bill? Will
we be responsible for it, even if the blockage isn't on our property, as we
reported it? Or is it the person who's property the blockage is on that is
responsible?

Any advice would be very welcome, particularly if anyones been in a similar
situation!

Thanks

Sarah

HugoSP

If the blockage is in a public sewer or one that has been adopted by the water authority then they will pay.

If it is on private land and not adopted then the bill falls on the owner of the drains or the land.

If your drains are shared and the blockage is in the shared part of the drain in someone's garden and the drains are unadopted then IIRC it could reasonably be split between the owners of the shared drain.

From what you tell me if the blockage is not on your property and it is a public sewer beyond your boundary, then it will be the water authority's cost - not yours.

If it is someone else's property beyond your boundary, have you informed them and have you tried to unblock it from their garden?

We had a similar situation when we were at my mother's house soon after she died. South West Water came out and cleared it within hours, and there was no charge. TBH I don't know where the blockage was. All I knew was that a manhole cover on the property started to lift and it was jammed full of you know what. The drains ran from the house, behind the house next door and then into the road.

globalds

In our case we paid for the drain to be cleaned ann inspected the inspection revealed tree roots from a peice of land owned by the council .They came and chopped the tree down ,but the drain blocked again .
This time I phoned environmental health and they organised the drain cleaning ,I finally had a refund from council for the work I had paid for about 9 months after I had paid ..

shell-collector

Thank you for your replies. I have called United Utilities about it this morning to ask them about billing, and they have told me that they will come and sort the blockage out for free, and nobody will be billed :j . I'm not complaining, I just hope they keep to their word

Thanks and Happy New Yr to you all.

Sarah

HugoSP

Great!

Go and get 5 litres of jeys fluid and thoroughly clean the areas around the blocked manhole covers etc.

TBH they do often seem more keen to unblock the drains rather than cause a nuicance in the community these days.