Whose responsibility?

[clam]

This is a drainage issue.
A house further down our cul-de-sac has sewage leaking into their garden from a shared mains drain, which is contributed to by about 4 or 5 other houses, including us.
They have been told by the council (after numerous phone calls to various departments, which makes me wonder if the person they ended up speaking to really knew what they were talking about) that we will all be liable for it.
I can understand that, to a point, and if so, we are willing to pay our share. But it has been pointed out that the issue might be due to tree roots coming from a garden not in our close, but backing onto this neighbour's garden. If this is found to be true, why should I/we be liable for damage doen by someone else's tree to a pipe not on our land?
And how do I check this out? Who can I ask?

A surevyor should be able to assess any damage or ask the Water Company.

Found a couple of websites that lay out the rules. Yes, everyone upstream of the blockage is jointly responsible (going to be fun getting number 4 to cough up!)and apparently tree roots will only affect an already-damaged pipe. So it's a grey area trying to prove to the tree owner that they have any responsibility.

Waiting for the "experts" to assess today.

Hey ho.

Household insurance

check it- buildings insurers usually pay

Even if the leak isn't actually on our porperty?

Does it say in your deeds or searches ? If the road is maintained I'd have thought it was down to whoever charges for the waste (ie. water authority), unless it is stipulated otherwise. They could then claim from the owner of tree if appropriate .

But the pipe isn't under the road. It runs along the back gardens until it reaches the main sewer on the main road.

Your water supplier will let you know who has responsibility. Definately worth checking as we had this and our pipes even though on our land were theirs. We had already had the drain people out and had a blockage cleared who told us there were roots in there. The water company reimbursed this. Our insurers told us it was the responsibility of the landowner with the tree to sort out broken pipes.

Oh! Thanks milly, that's worth knowing.

How old is the house? If it was built before 1937 the communal drain is the responsibility of the unitied utilities.

Nah. No luck. 1960s box.