Sewage blockage who is responsible

However, if the nearest public sewer to your property is more than a hundred feet away and you have your drains connected to a perfectly working private system, such as a cesspit, septic tank, or sewage treatment plant , your local authority cannot insist that you make the switch and connect to the public sewer. If you are connected to a private system, but it is not in the full working order that it needs to be, contact us and we will send our expert drainage engineers to inspect it.

We can provide all the pumping, maintenance and repair you need to keep your drains flowing as they need to. If you have a blocked sewer drain, who is responsible for getting it cleared becomes the paramount question. There are a number of ways that you can check whether you are connected to a private sewer system or a public one. These include:. As such, if you know you have a blocked sewer drain in your garden, or a blocked sewer drain that is somewhere around your property but you do not know if your system is private or public, check these points to find out.

You will then be able to decide whether you need to call your local water company, or get in touch with a professional drainage service. To find out more about blocked sewer pipe responsibility when the drains are public, please see the information found on Citizens Advice, or go directly to Ofwat.

They will be able to point you in the direction of the water company that services your area. If you have a blocked sewer line on your property and you know it is privately owned, call Coastal Drains today. We are passionate about what we do and we want our customers to have their drains in the best condition possible, so we do everything we can to keep all your pipes free-flowing and fit for use.

The result was a hefty repair bill. He also said the pressure from the blockage had cracked the pipe, which meant after clearing it out, it had to be professionally relined with advanced composite resins.

Rob decided to speak to Matt tenant himself to explain that he believed they had caused the blockage as the most visible and prolific item in the massive clog was the make-up wipes the mother used regularly. He added that they were therefore liable for the damage costs. The Brisbane sewer cleaning and relining expert who carried out the repair was once again contacted and asked for a written report detailing what he believed had caused the issues with the broken sewer pipe.

The pressure of the blockage had cracked the aging pipes leaving sewage to leak into the ground, and dirt to further clog the pipe.

The nappy: In the above example, one might initially presume the previous tenants were the ones who caused the sewer pipe blockage by placing nappies down the toilet. After all, they did have two small children and the current tenant had none. However, it is impossible to actually prove that fact. Finally, with the previous tenants gone and bond pay-outs settled, there would be virtually no way of recouping costs from them even if you were able to prove anything.

Even if it was deemed that the wipes were the major contributor to the blockage, does fault lie with the companies making these unrealistic claims about the biodegradability of their products or with the people who use such items and dispose of them in toilets without doing adequate research? Additionally, would the wipes alone have caused such a blockage had the nappies not been flushed down the toilet in the first place? The pipes: Finally we come to the issue of the home owner himself.

Firstly Rob had not advised the tenants in writing or otherwise that such items were not to be flushed down the toilet in his property. Without such instruction, is it the owner or the tenant who should take responsibility for the blockage? Also, pipes which may have been laid seventy years ago but were definitely at least 26 years old may not have been in great condition in the first place.

They may have coped just fine when Rob, who worked full time and lived alone, was the only occupant but with larger family groups did pre-existing problems simply come to a head? There could even have been breaks or cracks in the sewer pipe which had subsequently trapped all the other materials over the past two years. How long had it been since those pipes had been cleared or cleaned and what sort of on-going maintenance program had they enjoyed?

By his own admission, Rob had experienced no issues with his sewer pipes at all in the time he had lived there, and he had never even needed to worry about cleaning or clearing them. So how is anyone able to discern whether they had simply aged, corroded or broken down to the point where he was well overdue to have hydro jet drain cleaning and rehabilitation repairs with CIPP advanced composite resin relining carried out just to keep them maintained and fully functioning?

In the case above, the dispute became unpleasant and in the end it was the landlord who paid the bill. Landlords have to ensure their property is safe and suitable for tenants, but tenants also have a responsibility to care for a property and keep it functioning the way it was when they moved in.

Landlords also need to be very clear about how they want their property to be maintained, and what the consequences of ignoring those requests might be. As can be seen from the case study above, when it comes to clearing blockages, attributing fault and deciding who should pay the bill can be difficult.

These are usually paid for by the landlord. It is here that a tenant may find themselves footing the bill but only if it can be proven that their actions brought that emergency situation about.

If a dispute arises, it all comes down to who it is that can best meet the burden of proof. All water and sewerage companies have a duty to provide public sewers to make sure the area is effectively drained.

Usually, you have the right to connect the drain from your property to the public sewer — although you may have to pay for this. However, they can insist if they agree to pay for the additional costs of connection, including construction, maintenance and repairs. If you're not sure whether your property is connected to a public sewer or a private one, you can:. Skip to navigation Skip to content Skip to footer. Top links Housing benefit.

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Top links Making a will Complaining about social care services What does it mean to have power of attorney? Child abuse - advice and support Advice for people affected by child abuse. Law and courts Legal system Claiming compensation for a personal injury Discrimination Parking tickets Civil rights. In many cases like this one, the condo involved is located on the first floor of a multi-story building with an underground parking garage.

Each ground floor unit usually shares vertical drain pipes with the units stacked above. The vertical drain pipes will run through the shared common area walls and connect to lateral drain pipes running below the units and along the ceiling of the underground garage. To prevent sewage backups, the condo association management is usually responsible for arranging for maintenance of the main plumbing line. In most cases, a blockage of one of the main sewer lines serving the condo unit where a sewage backup has taken place and the units stacked above it may cause repeated sewage backups.

This type of blockage can occur in a lateral drain line running through the parking garage beneath the stacked units. Since this type of sewage backup occurred in a common area, the condo association is usually required to pay for the plumbing repair costs.

In cases like this one, it is usually debris that has accumulated over many years that causes a blockage in the main lines and the condo association is responsible for hiring a plumber to clean the pipes properly to repair the blockage. Contact this expert witness. Complete the form below to start an expert witness search right away.