Neighbour’s drain overflow on mum’s land, tenants unresponsive, what next?

[Winterwonderland222]

My mum lives by herself and is in her late 60’s. The neighbours drains are located on my mums side inside her side alley. I think it may have once been one plot unsure really?

It’s a rental property. There is a blockage and waste water is overflowing on mums side. I spoke to the tenants, they don’t speak english. I have used a translator, i’ve shown them the issue. They came over once to try and fix the issue themselves but clearly didn’t know what they were doing. They were just pouring water everywhere? 🤨

Now they’ve just decided to ignore me completely. My mum went over yesterday to ask if they have spoken to the agent and they started raising their voices and shouting but she had no idea what they were saying. It’s been over a week now.

These are the things I’ve tried:

1. The environmental services of our local council - they said the council won’t get involved in this?

2. I looked for the property and found the agent that advertised it. I called them but they said that they advertised it but they didn’t end up letting it. They gave me another agents number that the property was advertised with. They also did not let the property.

3. Mum used to have the owners number but I think they changed it so I can’t get through anymore.

What else can we do. We urgently need it fixed.

These drains do get blocked at least once a year but we’ve never had an issue in the past because the previous tenants were quick to deal with it.

Is this a foul water drain? If so then the councils environmental services can serve notice on them to fix it. If they refuse, contact you councillor.

Alternatively, if it's a drain that serves both properties, but it's their bit that's blocked, you can contact your water company and get them to deal with it.

Call the water company. It is nothing to do with the council unless it becomes a longstanding issue.

The water board dela with foul drains. They will charge the owner if it a shared drain.

I think it’s water from things like your kitchen sink? I honestly don’t know much about drains/sewers (as you could probably tell) so any help is appreciated.

I thought thames water only dealt with public drains and as this is on my land I assumed it was private?

I have now booked an appointment with thames water. They’ll be coming on Saturday. It say that if its a private drain then they won’t unblock. We’ll see what they say.

Any drain becomes a water company issue at the point it becomes shared, even if that is on a private property. So if it is blocked beyond where your mum's drain and neighbours drain meet, it is water company issue. Otherwise its the tenants issue.

If you don’t get anywhere with the water company, look up who owns the property on the Land Registry. Think it costs about £3.

@AlcoholicAntibiotic

thank you for recommending this. I have the owners name and there is an address. Would the address be their most recent address? What if they moved after it was registered.