I posted this in legal matters, but it occurred to me some property developers or similar might know the answer too. Sorry about length!
The main drain from our house keeps blocking up, currently about once every 3-4 months. Raw sewage fills all the inspection pits on our property, sometimes sewage has leaked out, and at least one of our loos fails to flush properly when the back up has got really bad.
We have had the drain cleared each time, of course, and last summer, having spent a long time on home renovations and an extension, finally had the drain surveyed to find out what was causing the repeated blockages. It turns out, just as our drain meets the public sewer, but, and this is critical, still at the point that it is our responsibility and not the water board's, there are tree roots growing through a join in the clay pipe. Obviously, as the roots grow, the drain will block more frequently.
Now, here's the problem: the point at which our drain meets the public sewer is actually under our neighbour's drive. Last summer, we informed him of the situation and sought his go ahead to get the problem fixed. We are talking about one, possibly 2 days' work. The drainage company would have to dig down from our neighbour's drive, locate the drain, and put a plastic sheath around the clay pipe which tree roots would be unable to penetrate. They would then back fill the hole and tarmac over the spot, meaning our neighbour will have a tarmac patch on his existing tarmac drive.
We appreciate this will not look that pretty, but having had our own tarmac drive dug up recently to have a gas supply fitted, I know that the patch effect soon becomes unnoticable. We also appreciate that there will be some inconvenience to our neighbours, in that their drive may be out of action for a day or two. We would be quite happy to allow them to park on our drive if that was an issue for them.
But, the neighbour has refused point blank to allow us to do the work. Initially, he stalled by saying he thought the quote we had had for the work was too cheap and therefore a good enough job would not be done. He also said the responsibility for the job lay with the water board.
Obligingly, we got the water board out hoping they would say it was indeed their responsibility as they then have the right to do the work with or without the neighbour's permission. They even told us they would do it there and then if it proved to be their responsibility. Unfortunately, we were right and the neighbour was wrong: it was not the water board's responsibility as the tree roots are coming through our drain just before the main sewer.
Thinking then that the neighbour had objected to us choosing a cheap quote, we decided to ask our home insurers if the job was covered by our policy, and thus get the job done by a more expensive contractor. Our insurers told us the job was covered by our policy, but when they tried to get permission from the neighbour to go ahead with the work, he again refused point blank.
Our insurers then suggested we tried Environmental Health at our local council. Apparently, in certain situations, they too can insist the work is done and can override any objections the neighbour has. Unfortunately, in our case, they said they couldn't act because it wasn't an environmental health issue. Well, I don't know about that: having raw sewage backing up your drains and sometimes leaking out of the inspection pit, and being unable to flush a loo because of the backlog might be considered a threat to our environmental health. But anyway...
Environmental Health also contacted the neighbour who then started playing silly games. He told them he was perfectly willing for the work to go ahead but he needed 24 hour access up his drive as a disabled person used his drive, and when the work was finished, instead of a tarmac patch covering the hole dug, he wanted the whole drive re-tarmaced. Re the disabled person: there is no disabled person living in his house. It is him, his wife and daughter. None of them are disabled. He is friendly with another of his neighbours who, according to my dh, is slow on his feet although I have never noticed this. Their gardens are linked by a little gate, but if this is the disabled person he is referring to, his house is actually on another road and he has perfect access to his house from his road ? no need to use our neighbour's drive at all. As for re-tarmacing his whole drive! If I explain that our neighbour's house was originally built as a granny annexe to our house back in the 1930s, and is located at what would have been the bottom of our very large garden and his drive runs all the way up the length of our property....I don't know, we could be talking 100 feet or more....there is no way it would be acceptable to our insurers or financially possible for us to tarmac the whole length for the sake of a patch I guess will be 2 feet square at most. So it is clear that despite telling the council he is willing for us to do the work, he is actually not at all willing and has done nothing but put obstacle after obstacle in our way.
So this is the question I want to ask (finally!) what rights do we have? Surely we must have some right to drainage from our property? We need to find the body who will force our neighbour to allow us to do the work we need to do. We know the water board can force him and Environmental Health can force him but neither body will do so. Is there anyone else who will act for us so we can fix this problem? Or what is the position legally with getting work done on ones property when it involves a neighbour's property too?
Please help. Dh and I are desperate to know how to proceed.