Question 1

Who is responsible for a shared drain?

Accepted Answer

Usually the water company. Since 1 October 2011, drains and sewers shared by more than one property transferred to the water company — here United Utilities — so a blockage in a shared run is very often theirs to clear, free. A drain serving only your property, up to the boundary, remains yours. The 2011 transfer is one of the most useful things a homeowner can know and one of the least known. Before it, the shared run behind a terrace or under a shared entry was the joint responsibility of every property connected to it, which in practice meant arguments and private contractors. Since then, if the pipe serves more than one property, it is the water company's — and so is the length of your own drain that runs outside your property boundary. What stays yours is the drainage that serves only your house and sits within your boundary. So the gully your downpipe runs into, the run from your house to where it joins anything else, and any private soakaway or channel you have installed on your drive are yours to maintain. The point at which it becomes shared, or crosses the boundary, is generally the point at which it stops being your problem. This matters for driveways in two specific ways. Driveway gullies and channels discharge into these runs, so a drive that floods because the receiving drain is blocked may well be a free call to United Utilities rather than a private job. And an inspection chamber sitting in your drive may not be yours at all — which affects who pays when its cover or surround fails. It is worth being clear about what a water company will and will not do. They will attend and clear a blockage in a pipe they are responsible for, at no charge. They will not repair or maintain private drainage, and they will not deal with a blockage caused inside your own property boundary on a run that serves you alone. Establishing which side of that line a problem sits on is worth a phone call before commissioning anybody. In this town it comes up more than average. Terraced streets and shared rear entries — characteristic of the silk-era housing in and around the centre — very often have exactly the shared runs the transfer covers. So does the older housing where several properties join before reaching the public sewer. Ask before you pay: people regularly fund clearance they were entitled to have done for nothing.

Question 2

Is my drain the water company's?

Accepted Answer

Usually the water company. Since 1 October 2011, drains and sewers shared by more than one property transferred to the water company — here United Utilities — so a blockage in a shared run is very often theirs to clear, free. A drain serving only your property, up to the boundary, remains yours. The 2011 transfer is one of the most useful things a homeowner can know and one of the least known. Before it, the shared run behind a terrace or under a shared entry was the joint responsibility of every property connected to it, which in practice meant arguments and private contractors. Since then, if the pipe serves more than one property, it is the water company's — and so is the length of your own drain that runs outside your property boundary. What stays yours is the drainage that serves only your house and sits within your boundary. So the gully your downpipe runs into, the run from your house to where it joins anything else, and any private soakaway or channel you have installed on your drive are yours to maintain. The point at which it becomes shared, or crosses the boundary, is generally the point at which it stops being your problem. This matters for driveways in two specific ways. Driveway gullies and channels discharge into these runs, so a drive that floods because the receiving drain is blocked may well be a free call to United Utilities rather than a private job. And an inspection chamber sitting in your drive may not be yours at all — which affects who pays when its cover or surround fails. It is worth being clear about what a water company will and will not do. They will attend and clear a blockage in a pipe they are responsible for, at no charge. They will not repair or maintain private drainage, and they will not deal with a blockage caused inside your own property boundary on a run that serves you alone. Establishing which side of that line a problem sits on is worth a phone call before commissioning anybody. In this town it comes up more than average. Terraced streets and shared rear entries — characteristic of the silk-era housing in and around the centre — very often have exactly the shared runs the transfer covers. So does the older housing where several properties join before reaching the public sewer. Ask before you pay: people regularly fund clearance they were entitled to have done for nothing.

Question 3

Who pays to unblock a shared drain?

Accepted Answer

Usually the water company. Since 1 October 2011, drains and sewers shared by more than one property transferred to the water company — here United Utilities — so a blockage in a shared run is very often theirs to clear, free. A drain serving only your property, up to the boundary, remains yours. The 2011 transfer is one of the most useful things a homeowner can know and one of the least known. Before it, the shared run behind a terrace or under a shared entry was the joint responsibility of every property connected to it, which in practice meant arguments and private contractors. Since then, if the pipe serves more than one property, it is the water company's — and so is the length of your own drain that runs outside your property boundary. What stays yours is the drainage that serves only your house and sits within your boundary. So the gully your downpipe runs into, the run from your house to where it joins anything else, and any private soakaway or channel you have installed on your drive are yours to maintain. The point at which it becomes shared, or crosses the boundary, is generally the point at which it stops being your problem. This matters for driveways in two specific ways. Driveway gullies and channels discharge into these runs, so a drive that floods because the receiving drain is blocked may well be a free call to United Utilities rather than a private job. And an inspection chamber sitting in your drive may not be yours at all — which affects who pays when its cover or surround fails. It is worth being clear about what a water company will and will not do. They will attend and clear a blockage in a pipe they are responsible for, at no charge. They will not repair or maintain private drainage, and they will not deal with a blockage caused inside your own property boundary on a run that serves you alone. Establishing which side of that line a problem sits on is worth a phone call before commissioning anybody. In this town it comes up more than average. Terraced streets and shared rear entries — characteristic of the silk-era housing in and around the centre — very often have exactly the shared runs the transfer covers. So does the older housing where several properties join before reaching the public sewer. Ask before you pay: people regularly fund clearance they were entitled to have done for nothing.

Who is responsible for a shared drain?

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