CCTV Drain Survey: Don’t Fall Out with Your Neighbours Over Drains

We all like to get on with our neighbours, but sometimes the unexpected can throw up obstacles to good relations. Drains can be a problem in this regard, when it comes to working out who is responsible for drainage.

Keeping the peace may require keeping a cool head, but it also may mean finding out more, which is where a drain survey comes in handy.

Whose Blocked Drain is it Anyway?

This all depends on where the blockage occurs, but clearly if it’s affecting both you and your neighbours then it’s going to be a potential source of conflict.

The first thing to think about is where the drain is actually situated, which will then determine whether it’s a public or private sewer. A drain is the pipe leaving your house, but when it joins with another property’s drain it becomes a sewer. Sewers can be public or private, depending on whether they’ve been adopted by a water authority.

So, if your private drain is blocked, the responsibility it yours. If a shared sewer is blocked but it’s private, then the responsibility is shared between you and your neighbours whose drains connect to it.

If there’s a dispute, then the local Environmental Health Officer (EHO) can, if needs be, serve a notice on you all, giving you 48 hours to have it cleared, which will probably force some kind of agreement.

 

Finding Out More

Regardless of who’s drain or sewer it is, there may well be an urgent need to find out why and where the blockage has occurred. A drain survey is an excellent way of doing this. It involves sending a CCTV camera down the drain to record exactly what’s down there.

This may also be a way of determining exactly who is responsible for the taking care of the blockage, as it will reveal where this is happening, whether in the drain or sewer.

Drainage Consultants are specialists in drain maintenance and repairs, and in detecting and removing blockages.

Don’t fall out with your neighbours over a blocked drain – contact Drainage Consultants today and let us help you sort it out.

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