Sewage Manhole cover in shared yard is leaking nastys

I called the council to report this (i am upstairs maisonette) as its a heath risk and is leaking onto the street. The council said they didnt deal as it was a privately owned yard but i told them it was going into the street so this forced their hand and they got Enviro Heath involved who apparently can force landlords into taking action about such things..

The downstairs family are chav ferrels who dont care about wading through floaters and wont cooperated in anyway, they have taken the back yard as there own and covered it with scrap metal and dog crap so i havent been down for years..

The question is tho, Who is responsible for this? How can the council and water say this is a private issue when they OWN (isnt this the case?) the manhole and access to it? Electrics etc are owned by the company right up to the meter in your house so how come its different for water/sewage?

If you ask the Water company to disconnect a propertys water supply they will still charge you water rates as you are still using their drainage etc. If its their drainage when they are charging you how come its your problem if its a problem??

I havent my plans handy to check how this manhole shows up on them

It's similar to gas/electric. The suppliers own and mantain everything within the highway and up to your/the boundary line where it then becomes the responsibility of the occupier/land owner, which in your case would be a maintenance company or similar.

Well that is what I thought anyway. And... they can disconnect water and other services in the highway so wouldn't necessarily need access to the property.

Or am I mistaken?

is the building pre 1934 ish
and is it a shared drain!!

Sewers can be a problem ownership wise.

For most people they are responsible for the sewer on their land and what you are paying for is the treatment of the waste and the infrastructure maintenance.

Unfortunately Sewer Mains sometimes run across private land and the sewer may be owned by the Water Company who will have a right of access to maintain or repair it.

There are variations on theses themes and you usually find out about them when you buy a property and do a search.

Getting Environmental Health involved is probably your best chance of progress.

Big-all, mine is 1937 and there is a common 6 inch clay sewer that runs across the back of all the gardens where I live. It may get interesting one day if it ever blocks! (who pays?) I don know the answer either because it was unknown who had responsibility at the time the search was done.

if its a shared sewer and pre 1935 water and sewerage act i think it is its the council or waterboards responcibility

Roll on 2011 when hopefully a fair few of these ownership problems should be resolved. The link below was the best site I found as it had some sketches to illustrate examples

http://www.water.org.uk/home/news/c...tion/ukstt-breakfast-seminar-presentation.pdf

That's interesting. I didn't know there were any plans to takeover parts of currently private drains.

So if I suspect (know) a section of my 'lateral' drains are collapsed (old pitch pipes problem) then if I wait until it's taken over by my drainage company then they will fix it for me?

Whoopee!

Tipper said:

That's interesting. I didn't know there were any plans to takeover parts of currently private drains.

So if I suspect (know) a section of my 'lateral' drains are collapsed (old pitch pipes problem) then if I wait until it's taken over by my drainage company then they will fix it for me?

Click to expand...

Yep so long as you remember the private (individual) drain on your own land remains yours to repair.

The Lateral drain beyond your boundary they will take over if it is currently private and the shared sewer on your land they will take over. See also: http://www.defra.gov.uk/news/2008/081215a.htm

hi

You and any other property that derives benefit from the drain are responsible for its maintenance and repair upto the point the drain connects into the main sewer, the main sewer can be quite a distance away and way beyond your property boundary. Applies to England & Wales, Scotland is different.

It is very unlikely the drain in question will be the responsibility of the local authority (normally water company) as an ex section public sewer even if the drain is shared, but it depends on when the properties that derive (use) benefit were built/converted.

The local authority can serve notice on properties that us ethe drain, giving a set time for the problem to be repaired/resolved, if its not then they will carry out the repair and bill the property owners that use the drain (normally at a higher rate).

Do you own the flat or is it rented. If its rented then pestered the landlord. If you own it and have buildings insurance then contact your insurers, they should inspect the drain, detemine who uses it and start the ball rolling to get it repaired. If the people below dont play ball then id let the council do it. The council will get money back from the people below.