Can I put a water butt on a neighbour's downpipe?

Miri_J

I've recently moved to a modern terraced house. My gutters discharge into a drain in my neighbour's garden. It's round a corner and too far away from my garden, so there's no chance of putting a water butt there.
At the back of my garden, another neighbour has a garage that backs onto my garden. It has a gutter with a downpipe that discharges into a drain in my garden. I wouldn't do this without asking but I'm wondering what people think the reception is likely to be if I ask if I can cut the downpipe and put a water butt there? 
I haven't met these people yet, it's a quiet neighbourhood and I think they are away ATM.
Currently there's a piece of pipe missing at the bottom of said downpipe so I could offer to fix that as part of my installation. Would that cause problems later?

marcia_

 Wouldn't bother me in the slightest if a neighbour made the request to me. Would tell you to go ahead at your own cost 

FlorayG

I don't see why they would object if they don't want to collect the water themselves. Of course if they move you will need a new arrangement with the incoming residents; maybe 'just in case' get a letter from them giving permission for 'as long as they are resident or until they rescind permission'. You can write it yourself and just ask them to sign, explaining that you wouldn't want legal problems with the incoming's solicitors if they were to move out

Albermarle

Sounds pretty straightforward, unless the neighbour is one of those awkward ones.

Section62

Miri_J said:

..
At the back of my garden, another neighbour has a garage that backs onto my garden. It has a gutter with a downpipe that discharges into a drain in my garden. I wouldn't do this without asking but I'm wondering what people think the reception is likely to be if I ask if I can cut the downpipe and put a water butt there? ...

Are you sure it is in your garden?  It isn't uncommon on modern developments for the legal boundary line to be set a certain distance from a building to allow for eaves overhang and/or guttering.  It shouldn't be an issue for the neighbour, but just make sure if they think they own some land your side of the garage that they don't misinterpret your request as part of a land grab.

In the neighbour's position the only thing I'd want is to make sure that when the water butt is full the excess water is going to the drain rather than running out of the top of the butt over my wall.  Either by you having an overflow pipe from the butt to the drain, or else a rainwater diverter which automatically drains any overflow via the gutter downpipe (and in this case you make sure the diverter is maintained properly).

Mr.Generous

Might be worth just dropping your own down pipe in if you have a grid you could use. Doesn't cost much and means you don't have to rely on someone else keeping gutters clear for yours to drain.

Miri_J

Section62 said:

Miri_J said:

..
At the back of my garden, another neighbour has a garage that backs onto my garden. It has a gutter with a downpipe that discharges into a drain in my garden. I wouldn't do this without asking but I'm wondering what people think the reception is likely to be if I ask if I can cut the downpipe and put a water butt there? ...

Are you sure it is in your garden?  It isn't uncommon on modern developments for the legal boundary line to be set a certain distance from a building to allow for eaves overhang and/or guttering.  It shouldn't be an issue for the neighbour, but just make sure if they think they own some land your side of the garage that they don't misinterpret your request as part of a land grab.

In the neighbour's position the only thing I'd want is to make sure that when the water butt is full the excess water is going to the drain rather than running out of the top of the butt over my wall.  Either by you having an overflow pipe from the butt to the drain, or else a rainwater diverter which automatically drains any overflow via the gutter downpipe (and in this case you make sure the diverter is maintained properly).

Thanks for your comments. Yes I've checked the title plan, my ownership goes right up to the boundary on all sides so no problem on that count. 
I guess a rainwater diverter is what I was expecting so anything excess goes down the drain. If it's not maintained properly it's going to flood my path and drive so I want to make sure I get it right! I'll make sure that's clear to them when I talk to them.

Mistral001

Mr.Generous said:

Might be worth just dropping your own down pipe in if you have a grid you could use. Doesn't cost much and means you don't have to rely on someone else keeping gutters clear for yours to drain.

^^^This

Neighbours can be tricky when you want to mess around with their property, even an apparently simple thing like this.  The friendliest could feel like it is taking liberties.  

PS.  It could be a problem with regard to your or your neighbour's insurance.  For example, if the alteration you made to their downpipe had a problem resulting in water damage to their property.

Section62

Mr.Generous said:

Might be worth just dropping your own down pipe in if you have a grid you could use. Doesn't cost much and means you don't have to rely on someone else keeping gutters clear for yours to drain.

Needs to be done with some thought - the OP presumably has a right to drain their roof area into the neighbour's drainage system.  Disconnecting their gutter from the neighbours drain may result in that right being lost.

Likewise, the OP might have a grid/drain in their garden, but that doesn't mean they would necessarily be allowed to divert their roof drainage into that drain - for example if they have a gully on a foul water drain then that shouldn't have surface water put into it.

Diverting some of the water from the roof into a new downpipe might be an option, leaving the connection into the neighbour's garden intact, but still not without some risk.

Set against that, the cost of getting someone to install new guttering (if the OP can't DIY) won't be minor, and even on a metered supply you can get a fair amount of water for not much money.  So unless this is being done for pure environmental reasons the cost/benefit won't necessarily be good - and if solicitors eventually end up getting involved the economics could be very poor.  Obviously, if environmental issues are the main thing here, then discharging surface water into a foul sewer would be a big no-no.

Miri_J

Section62 said:

Mr.Generous said:

Might be worth just dropping your own down pipe in if you have a grid you could use. Doesn't cost much and means you don't have to rely on someone else keeping gutters clear for yours to drain.

Needs to be done with some thought - the OP presumably has a right to drain their roof area into the neighbour's drainage system.  Disconnecting their gutter from the neighbours drain may result in that right being lost.

Likewise, the OP might have a grid/drain in their garden, but that doesn't mean they would necessarily be allowed to divert their roof drainage into that drain - for example if they have a gully on a foul water drain then that shouldn't have surface water put into it.

Diverting some of the water from the roof into a new downpipe might be an option, leaving the connection into the neighbour's garden intact, but still not without some risk.

Set against that, the cost of getting someone to install new guttering (if the OP can't DIY) won't be minor, and even on a metered supply you can get a fair amount of water for not much money.  So unless this is being done for pure environmental reasons the cost/benefit won't necessarily be good - and if solicitors eventually end up getting involved the economics could be very poor.  Obviously, if environmental issues are the main thing here, then discharging surface water into a foul sewer would be a big no-no.

It's an interesting thought, but putting my gutter into this other drain isn't really an option. It's at the end of the garden, over 10m from the house, so would be quite an upheaval. I'm looking for a cheap, quick way of getting some rainwater for the garden. I have a tiny shed, it may be cheaper and easier to just get a gutter kit for the shed. I've put out a load of buckets / trugs etc to see what I catch tonight off the shed as we have heavy rain forecast. I'll make a decision after that.

teaselMay

A small shed roof collects a fair amount. I added a gutter to my old brick outhouse, primarily to address its damp issue and then added a makeshift water butt from a kitchen bin. The ?40L bin overflowed every time it rained.