To be asking neighbour to pay for blocking a drain and flooding our garden

[NamasteGirl]

Since we moved in 18 months ago a drain in our back garden has been surging up with fatty smelly water on and off. The drain carries water away from our neighbour's houses- our kitchen bathroom etc are all at the front of the house instead. In the last few months the drain problem has got worse and worse and just bfore Xmas we found our patio had flooded three inches deep with stinky greasy water.

I called out Dynorod who told us that the grease causing the blockage had come from our neighbour next door- there is no trace of grease coming from the house the other side of them. He cleared the blockage and disinfected our patio, and told us that next door should pay for the cost of his call out as it is their fault.

Problem is, we are friends with the neighbours, so me and dh had to go round there and tell them as nicely as we could that the flooding and blockage was from their kitchen, could they please not put fat down the drain, and would they mind paying the bill for the callout. Neighbour was miffed, said she hadnt put fat down there. and made some comments about having no money, to which I said there is no immediate need to pay us right this minute. I said I didnt want any bad feeling over it, she agreed and I went home.

Two weeks later and she blanked me when she was outside our house. I felt v worried and upset over it all and sent her a text saying I really dont want there to be a problem between us, to which she replied and said shall we meet up to chat about it, which we will do in a few days. I am dreading it!

Dh is standing firm that they should pay for the entire callout charge seeing as our house doesnt even use the drain, and the Dynorod guy said it was coming from their kitchen. I see his point but I dont want us to be enemies over this. I dont know what to do. Help!!

How long have the neighbours been there?

I only say this because our drain recently blocked very near the kitchen. We absolutely had never, ever, ever put fat down the drain. I am very careful about it and also regularly sluice caustic soda down too.

My husband managed to clear it himself with rods and a honking mess of what smelled like beef fat came out.

We suspect that it must have been from the previous owner. We have been here around two years and maybe our good care plus the regular caustic soda kept it going for that long and then finally the fat all kind of slid into the wrong position and blocked all together.

I don't know how long fat takes to move along drains. If it is got all the way from your neighbours to your property, could it be fat from some years ago?

If the drain carries waste from more than one house it's the water companies responsibility

I'm not too sure that I would want to pay if I was your neighbour.

OP: you called Dynarod out and fully expected to pay the bill, until you were told the problem was to do with next door.

Second what Souljacker says- shared drains are dealt with by the water company. A nicer dynorod guy would have told you- ours did. And the water people sorted it for nothing.

If I was your neighbour, I would also be a bit miffed at being asked to pay. I think you're stuck with this one!

Are you insured and if so, would that not cover it?

You probably should have called your water company out.

Agree it could be years old - we cleaned out ours when we moved in and the house had even empty for ages, really bad blocks of fat

1. You can't prove it was them
2. They had no choice about how it was dealt with. Dial-a-rod is an expensive solution to this problem. I would have dealt with it more cheaply.

So yes YABU

I'm sure this is the third post I've seen from you OP.

Shared drains are not always the responsibility of the water company. They are responsible for sewers. If the drain is private, but communal, they may not be responsible. I would give the water company a ring as your first point of call, to find out their policy on this. I also agree with Caterpillar, greasy fat can be very slow moving, it may not be down to these neighbours but previous occupiers.

Oh yes, to Grennie's number two as well. We had another drain block which the neighbour wanted to blame us for and make us pay. I wore two pairs of rubber gloves and tied a rubbish bag round my arm and fished around. It was disgusting. But I found a load of dirt, leaves and sticks plus a broken drain-hole cover inside the drain which solved the problem. Cost £0. (though discomfort factor was high!!)

I don't understand why you have a drain in your garden if your house doesn't use it?

Agree that communal drains are not necessarily the water board's problem - we have a drain on our property which is a conduit for the waste from 3 properties. It got blocked so often that we ended up buying our own set of rods (strangely satisfying, if you can convince yourself it's not poo) - until elderly neighbours died, when the problem stopped.

I think you may have to agree to go halves to be fair.

How much is the bill?

You can't just spring a bill on someone for a service that they didn't ask for and had no say in. How many quotes did you ring round for before deciding on this particular company?

You also have no proof that the neighbour was responsible, just the word of someone from Dynorod.

Around 3 years ago, I received a letter from United Utilities showing a diagram of the drains, and explaining that the law regarding drains had changed. The drains that lead from your property are your responsibility, but as soon as they meet with the drain that others share, even though it may still be on your property, it is, IIRC, now the responsibility of UU.
Hope this is accurate and helps you. I'm sure a google or call to UU may be able to clarify it.

You need to check to see if it is the water company's responsibility. They generally only are responsible when it's drains that are off your property but if it is a shared drain they may be responsible.

I know of somebody who has the opposite issue, they have assertained it's the water company's responsibility but the neighbours keep calling in private company's when there's an issue, despite being to, and then trying to share the cost!

Ignoring the poor grammar in the second bullet point, this may clear things up for you:

"What United Utilities is responsible for – the big public sewers that take sewage and rainwater run-off to wastewater treatment works, the pipes from your property’s boundary that lead into the public sewer. Many of the shared drains where several property’s drains meet together before they join the public sewer – if you suspect that this is blocked, please contact us. "

www.unitedutilities.com/sewers-and-drains-explained.aspx

you cant bill someone or expect them to pay. you called out dynorod, you pay.