Sewerage pipe block in neighbours garden

[NCLegalQuery]

Hello.

Long time here but NC as very outing.

Mum has a blocked sewer. It’s backed up into her garden as found by emergency plumber. He thinks a root from the neighbours tree has likely caused the issue - may be collapsed pipe or root growing through it. He couldn’t see as no camera and blocked up into mums garden.

Shes had to move in with us tonight - really bad for my mental health - so I’m keen to support her to get it sorted quickly. I am dealing with a lot already so a passive aggressive, critical house guest wasn’t on my ‘to do’ list. I may be listing in relationships in the next few days!!

I’m hoping MN wisdom, knowledge and experience can help smooth the process.

Whose insurance would the claim go through? Hers or the neighbours?

Anyone know what might need to be done (PigletJohn?)?

How long could this go on for (read that in a squeaky and slightly stressed tone of voice)?

And just aaaaarghhhh really!

I think once it has more than one persons waste water in it becomes an issue for the water company - I would call and ask their advice.

If it connects to a main, then your mum is responsible up until the property boundary.
Obviously if septic tank etc, its all your mums in which case the tank might be full?

A drainage/septic tank emptying company should come out within a day or two, at the very least they will suck out all the sewage, rod the blockage (thats all it might be)inspect with camera and then you'll know... they would also know who to get to replace pipe if needed.
Your plumber is guessing, most plumbers are not really equipped for this sort of thing.

Water companies sometimes offer this service but you need deep pockets.

Thank you both.

Not a septic tank sadly. Easy to sort that.

Interesting re water company- hadn’t thought to ask them.

It’s a pipe that goes from my mums property and then under the neighbouring house that was built after hers was. So I think it will just be her waste.

Your water company would’ve done these investigations for free. She needs to ring them in the morning and tell them that her sewer is backing up and she is unable to flush the toilet or run water into the pipes. They should come out usually same day and will do investigations to see where the blockage is.

Not always the case but generally speaking as noted above if the blockage is on your neighbours land then they will take up the neighbours garden if needed to investigate and clear it. That shouldn’t cost your mum anything

Just looked on water company site. Not clear who is responsible if a pipe goes out of your boundary into a neighbouring garden - the problem is likely the neighbours tree roots so may be on their property - would need digging up in their garden. Would that therefore be their insurance? Or still mums.

Neither. The Water company would generally pay the cost of investigation. That’s not always the case but usually your mum’s responsibility ends at the boundary and once it’s a shared sewer excavation is the water company’s responsibility.

They have all the equipment to dig the garden if needed and also to suck at all the waste so that they can get a camera down to see exactly what’s going on

Once it’s outside your mums property boundary it’s classed as a public sewer, so depending on location of blockage likely to be responsibility of the water company. Useful diagram on Thames water site explains responsibility www.thameswater.co.uk/help/emergencies/blockages. Same principle should apply for whichever water company she is served by

If the blockage is in neighbours garden and caused by their tree, that's their insurance that deals with it.

If the drainage is shared by more than one property it is definitely a water company issue. (So both houses connect to the same drain which then goes out to a boundary of one of the property's)

If it's just one property then it is your problem until it reaches the boundary of your property. I only realised this after spending a small fortune on getting pipes cleared.

Thanks all.

Might be worth trying the water company but it’s backed up into her garden, which backs on to neighbours garden so I think may be it’s not their responsibility- def worth asking though.

Definitely make water co your first call tomorrow.

We are under Wessex Water - when our neighbour had an issue they investigated within 10 hours and ended up paying for all repairs, AFAIK.

As for your "houseguest", can't she stay elsewhere? Find out if her insurance/ the water company will cover a nice Airbnb for her until it's resolved 'because her house is uninhabitable and she has no where else to go' - they should do.

Insurance airB&B is genius!! Hadn’t thought of that. She’d prefer that too.

I have been away with work so will see what the latest is when I get home later, but will def try water company if they haven’t and hope and pray it’s them and they sort it soon.

Thank you so much wonderfully helpful MNetters. Always find it helpful to post.

Hi OP, glad it's been helpful!

Re-reading your post that the neighbour's property was built after hers, and blockage/issue is on their land. I think this will most likely fall to them to claim on their insurance in that case.

We built over an (admittedly public/shared) sewer when we extended.

We had to ensure that our foundations were specially assessed as strong enough to cause no problems, that no works could damage the pipe, etc.

If anything had gone wrong the liability would have been ours.

I reckon that since the pipe pre-existed their build then they are most likely liable for the issue - but after calling the water company you should potentially get more advice on this - maybe speak to the council building regs team? Is the next door house a newish build?

Wish you all the best!

Ours is connected to the neighbours and it runs through all the gardens in our street. As it's all daisy chained together the water company sees to any problems for us No charge.
We had been told if the main was in the road and we all like to that then we'd be responsible for our own bit.