Soil pipe-building regs

[gnvqsos]

I own a property which is a terraced house with a shared passage. The neighbouring property has a soil pipe running through the passage at about 2.7 metres .Their bathroom is at the front of the property but the drains lie at the rear. It has very little fall. In addition the waste water from the bath and basin are deposited into a hopper on my side .The hopper accepts rain from the down pipe, and when the bath is emptied water backs up and runs away from the gully. The water run s through passage and builds up in the cellar. I presume this constitutes a health risk.
I have asked the owner to re-route the water into the soil pipe, using strap bosses etc. If nothing is done what solutions do I have-I presume the council need to be informed as this practice does not meet building regs.

 

[Hugh Jaleak]

The Regs do not apply retrospectively, if the setup has always been that way, you are under a Legal Obligation to accept the neighbours waste water. Hoppers are horrible and unsanitary affairs, however they are still permitted to be fitted as direct replacements for an existing hopper.

Although, if it is causing a nuisance, then it is not unreasonable for something to be done to alleviate that. Why does the Gully overflow? Is it due to the grid being blocked or poor angle/setup of the discharge pipework? Secondly, does your property discharge anything into this Hopper?

Environmental Health at the Council may get involved if the overflowing gully presents a health risk, but Building Control are unlikely to be interested if the setup has been in situ for some time.

 

[gnvqsos]

Thanks for your reply .The hopper receives rainwater from both roofs, but nothing from my property from bathrooms etc. The gully can accept run-off from the roof but cannot cope with the release of bath-water ,and overflows accordingly.

 

[Hugh Jaleak]

Gully should handle bath discharge easily enough. Is the gully blocked so is backing up and overflowing, (put a call into your Water Co, they may come out and clear it FOC), or its the discharge overshooting the gully and so making a mess that way, (needs pipework altering to stop that occurring.)