shared sewage drain

[HippyHippopotamus]

i really hope someone can help!

There are six houses that have a shared sewage drain. so house A is at the top, their waste goes down the pipe first, then house B's joins the pipe,then house C etc until it all gets to house F which is at the bottom. The pipe then joins the main sewage system.

I live in house E

The problem is that somebody is flushing things down their toilet in either A,B,C or D which is getting as far as the join with the mains sewage and blocking it. Eventually the pipe fills up until we get sewage leaking up out of the man-hole cover in our back garden. House F has built an extension over their man-hole cover and it is sealed and screwed down so this is why we get the problem first.

Every time it happens, it costs approx £120 to get someone to unblock it.

It has just happened for the second time in a year. The first time, we paid for it, sent a very polite letter to the other houses and 2 of them ignored it. I spoke to one couple and it 'wasn't their problem/fault'. The other house is council owned and they're therefore not responsible.

We can't afford to keep doing this so i'd like to know

a) are we legally all responsible for the upkeep of this shared drain?

b) am i right in thinking that if the blockage is after our shared bit ie on the mains sewage pipe that its in fact our local water board's problem?

c) how do i get reimbursed from the neighbours?

thanks for reading, sorry its so long!

see this

www.kirklees.gov.uk/answers/drainage/drainage.shtml#privatesewer

that's brilliant! thank you

Were the houses built before 1937? If so it the whole communal sewer is probably the responsibility of the local water company - check with your local authority.

hmm, no, think they're only 60years old. thanks for your reply though

We had the same problem.

We were on an estate built in the early 70s. The foul drain ran across the back gardens.

We were due to complete the sale of our house on the Monday. We were the 3rd house to join the drain. Next door at the second house, they poured fat down the drain. We knew it was them because we could smell their cooking through the open kitchen window next to our garage. Dh had worked for a water company, so he would never put fat down the sink as he knows it causes problems, and I wouldn't do it either.

On the Saturday afternoon - not the morning - they came to tell thus that they had sewage coming up through their manhole cover - and asked us to call a plumber. D'uh. We did. And we paid. They didn't offer to pay towards it.

Never did like them - he mowed the back garden lawn in the nude. Mel Gibson he was not. And the front garden lawn in bikini type briefs. He was nearly 70. They were seriously weird, and very very nosy.