Problems with sewer - dispute with water company

[invinoveritaserum]

I have a blocked sewer - raw sewage is backing up into my cellar. This is the second time it has happened, and the water company has been out. The first time ( a couple of weeks ago) they said that the blockage was inside my property boundary (by centimetres!) they said that it was 15 metres from the ingress.

The other day I had an independent survey done, and they said that the blockage was actually in the road, 21 metres from the ingress, and definitely not on my property. Obviously this difference means the difference between who is responsible for the work to clear the blockage.

However the water company are still denying responsibility. And I urgently need this sorted. Does anyone have experience of this? I can see I will have to pay to get it sorted and battle with them afterwards as it's a health issue, plus the smell is awful! I just don't see how they can ignore a professional survey like this.

If it’s their sewer that’s blocked, there must be a road full of people with problems. If it’s just you, it’s on your land. I think it probably is your drains. My DM had the same issue and houses with cellars have old pipes! That’s probably where the problem is. Sorry.

Is it a sewer or a drain? If it’s a sewer then by it’s definition it’s very likely to be the utility company asset. Drains tend to serve just one property so would be your responsibility.

When you had the pipe surveyed, why didn’t they jet the blockage? Or has the pipe collapsed? Did they not take CCTV footage of their survey (the private company)?

I should have said that lateral drains would usually be the utility companies responsibility also.

Sorry, me again. If you’re sure it’s not your responsibility to get it cleared then a good contractor wouldn’t take an instruction privately and if you did get a cowboy to clear it then if they happened to cock it up and say, collapse a public sewer or flood a neighbours property then I think you’d be on dodgy ground with regards to liability.

I’m afraid you will have to battle with the water company to get them to accept responsibility.

Yes get the private company to write a report urgently or send you the cctv video. The video as the camera goes along tells you how many meters it has travelled. Or mine did anyway, I used to do this for a job.

Get onto environmental health first thing and get them to advocate for you.

Can you get your buildings insurers involved? If it’s your issue eg on your land you may have to claim but if its the water co then building insurers will quickly establish that’s the case and water company will have to take responsibility.

We had a drain issue and insurers tried not to pay out. I argued and they changed their minds. It was £4k so worth it.

the problem with a blockage is that if you send a camera down from your property in the direction of the blockage the actual site of the blockage isn't where the camera first comes across it. To find the actual site of the problem you need to send the camera upstream, as that is where the original blockage occurred. that is more likely to be shown to be at or beyond the junction.