we share sewage drains with 3 to 4 of our neighbours.the fourth neighbour (A) says he does not although when we look in one of the inspection chambers in our garden there is a pipe running in (A's) house 's direction... the outlet pipe from the inspection pit to the mains sewer in the road is through our garden.
a few days ago we looked in the pit and there was approx 12 inches of liquid (it normally runs very clear and clean).we called in the local water board who said that not withstanding the age of all our properties we were not covered by the schedule d thing which allows them to fix our drains.they said that we were not on the register as someone must have had some work done which removed us from this register.
the problem is that we cannot find our buildings insurance and if this is the case we will have to pay. our house is mortgaged so we should obviously be insured,and can only assume this slipped through the net when it came to renewal.
The local water company said they would send someone into see if they could unblock the drain with a water jet and rodding.this did not work.the man doing it said he thought the drain had collapsed.
our neighbour (A) has been doing building work close to the shared boundary wall.in the last 4/5 months he has had a jcbwith caterpillar tracks close to the boundary pulling out a tree approx 16 foot high on the scale of a small silver birch (but an unknown variety of tree.) and a consderable amount of rased flower bed.whilst this tree and the surrounding banked up earth was being removed i noticed and commented to our neighbour(A's) son that a section of our front wall was moving up and down (over where the pipe lies probably 5/6 feet down.the wall is a rubble built sandstone wall.
our neighbours BC and D are happy that we share drains and to refer the matter to there insurers and get it sorted.we are in good relations with all of them.
i know we are going to have to pay if not insured,but what is the best way to proceed.we want to involve the other neighbours with cost obviously as they have a legal obligation. but we also need to have the damage in the pipe collapse assessed as it could have been neighbour (A's) digger causing viibration/disturbance to the pipes when he pulled the tree out. so even if he does use our drains i feel he is also liable for the damage (if it is proven he did it).the soil that our houses are built on is clay.
i do hope tsome one can give us some advice.
By the way one of the neighbours(B) has had a drainage company out to put a camera down but they arrived without the camera.the driver was willing to jet water the drain but his company said no we would have to do it on our insurance.this man is coming back in a few days with the camera to establish to the insurance company's satisfaction,i guess,that B is actually on a shared drain.
previous to all this we have never had any problem with drains in the eight years we have been there.Our houses were all built between 1850-1890
Thank you for any advice
a few days ago we looked in the pit and there was approx 12 inches of liquid (it normally runs very clear and clean).we called in the local water board who said that not withstanding the age of all our properties we were not covered by the schedule d thing which allows them to fix our drains.they said that we were not on the register as someone must have had some work done which removed us from this register.
the problem is that we cannot find our buildings insurance and if this is the case we will have to pay. our house is mortgaged so we should obviously be insured,and can only assume this slipped through the net when it came to renewal.
The local water company said they would send someone into see if they could unblock the drain with a water jet and rodding.this did not work.the man doing it said he thought the drain had collapsed.
our neighbour (A) has been doing building work close to the shared boundary wall.in the last 4/5 months he has had a jcbwith caterpillar tracks close to the boundary pulling out a tree approx 16 foot high on the scale of a small silver birch (but an unknown variety of tree.) and a consderable amount of rased flower bed.whilst this tree and the surrounding banked up earth was being removed i noticed and commented to our neighbour(A's) son that a section of our front wall was moving up and down (over where the pipe lies probably 5/6 feet down.the wall is a rubble built sandstone wall.
our neighbours BC and D are happy that we share drains and to refer the matter to there insurers and get it sorted.we are in good relations with all of them.
i know we are going to have to pay if not insured,but what is the best way to proceed.we want to involve the other neighbours with cost obviously as they have a legal obligation. but we also need to have the damage in the pipe collapse assessed as it could have been neighbour (A's) digger causing viibration/disturbance to the pipes when he pulled the tree out. so even if he does use our drains i feel he is also liable for the damage (if it is proven he did it).the soil that our houses are built on is clay.
i do hope tsome one can give us some advice.
By the way one of the neighbours(B) has had a drainage company out to put a camera down but they arrived without the camera.the driver was willing to jet water the drain but his company said no we would have to do it on our insurance.this man is coming back in a few days with the camera to establish to the insurance company's satisfaction,i guess,that B is actually on a shared drain.
previous to all this we have never had any problem with drains in the eight years we have been there.Our houses were all built between 1850-1890
Thank you for any advice