Dispute with neighbour over blocked drain- please help!!

[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!!

Slightly tricky as you sound completely in the right, but you don't want a bad neighbourly relationship.

It might be hard to get any money out of them for the whole bill, but they may give you a contribution, particularly if you have a written report about the drain clearance which independently verifies what you were told. If you don't have that, ring and request it from the people who came out.

We share a drainage tank with two other houses and on occasion that's been blocked. Unfortunately it's been blocked at the end of the run where there's no proof as to which house caused the problem.
Of course the other two both always deny all knowledge even though I know for a fact that the items blocking the tank haven't come from ours
At least we all share the cost equally, but it still gets my goat that we pay a third when we haven't created the blockage.

Haven't you already posted this several times?

Hmm. Tough one.

Who's actual drain is it?

Tbh I would be inclined to suggest sharing the cost this time. After all although they can control what goes down the drain they are kind of at your mercy re access or indeed if you decided to block the drain with furniture or some kind of garden work (not that you would am sure but the drain is kind of out of their hands as it were.)

We had kind of a similar problem with the septic tank we share with our neighbours. Their small kids had a habit of blocking their toilets with loo roll. Unfortunately it backed up the tank, the overflow of which is on our property. Yuck. We split the cost to be neighbourly with the understanding that they would pay if it happened again. (and they bought less loo roll.)

Unexpected- i posted in Chat yesterday and only got one reply. I then tried propery and Diy but have asked for that to be deleted as I thought this was the best place.

If it's a section of shared drain, then it's likely your water utility company is responsible for it...

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

one of my neighbours, who has a house on a hill, had a similar problem, where a cover in his garden was lifting. He had a watertight cover fitted, and weighed it down with a big plant pot, so the next blockage caused backup into the uphill neighbour's garden.

I think it is very hard to ask them to pay got it retrospectively. They had no opportunity to choose their own contractors etc, or remedy the problem. Had you mentioned the problem before? (Prior to the big incident?) if not it seems a bit harsh to get them to pay the full thing maybe. The dynorod person's view is interesting but not binding - he said s

Something you wanted to hear (i.e. somebody else should pay) but whilst still getting his money directly!! Would any

Something you wanted to hear (i.e. somebody else should pay) but whilst still getting his money directly!! Would either (you or neighbour) of your insurance policies pay out. I don't see you have much leverage - you have already paid and it has no negative consequences for your neighbours. sorry not to say what you wanted to hear, I'll put my fat fingers away that keep posting mid-message