Blocked Drains and Sewers: Who Is Responsible?

Whether it’s a commercial property or your home, a blocked drain can soon become more than a smelly inconvenience. It pays to know who’s responsible for blocked drains. If you’ve noticed a foul smell, water laying around, or toilets and showers that are backing-up and not letting water flow away freely, you need to know who to contact and who’s responsible for resolving the blockage and paying for that service.

To understand who’s responsible for blocked drains, it’s important to have a basic knowledge of the layout of your plumbing. This includes the drains and pipes on your own commercial or domestic property (which is the property owner’s responsibility), and where that wastewater goes once it leaves your property. For blocked drains outside who is responsible? That will generally be the water authority in your area, though there are exceptions to that.

Who Is Responsible for Blocked Drains at Your Property?

Owning your own home or commercial property has several advantages, particularly in the current economic climate. Along with those advantages comes certain responsibilities, including resolving blocked drains at your property. According to Citizen’s Advice UK,

You are responsible for maintaining or repairing any drains inside the boundaries of your property – these are your private drains.

If you have a blocked drain, you can try to clear the blockage yourself or you can contact an expert in water and drainage to investigate the blockage and have them clear it for you. It’s especially important to have trusted professionals who will respond in an emergency.

According to Citizen’s Advice UK, there may be circumstances where:

your local authority environmental health department can order you to carry out improvement work or replace a private drain. They might do this if, for example, they think your drain is too small for your property or if it’s causing a blockage.

If this occurs, again you can contact water industry approved contractors (WIAPS), to ensure that the work is conducted to the standards required by the Environmental Health Department. In this case, the owner of the property is who’s responsible for blocked drains and for paying for any work done that is directed by their local authority.

Who Is Responsible for Blocked Sewer Drains?

Once your drainage system leaves your property, the responsibility shifts. The wastewater goes from your private drain to a ‘lateral drain’ which takes the wastewater to a sewer. As explained by Citizen’s Advice UK:

A lateral drain is a length of pipe which carries wastewater away from your property to a sewer. It’s usually located outside your property boundary, often under a public pavement or road. A lateral drain might run under your property if you share a sewer with your neighbour.

If the blockage occurs in the lateral drain or sewer system, in terms of who’s responsible for blocked drains, it’s unlikely that it will be the property owner. Unless your property has their wastewater running into a cesspool or septic tank, the more likely outcome is that the sewer is owned (and therefore maintained) by the water company in your area and they will action and bear the cost for blocked drains outside. Who is responsible may also depend on whether the blockage occurs in a shared sewer line.

Who Is Responsible for a Shared Sewer Line?

In properties with a private sewer that contain a number of different drains, such as a block of flats or a caravan park, the responsibility for blocked drains remains with the owners of the property. If that is more than one person, the responsibility and cost is shared between the owners.

A shared sewer line that includes lateral drains running to a public sewer, however, will be the responsibility of the water authority who owns the sewer.

If all owners agree, you can apply to have the drains connected to the public sewer and if this is granted after the initial costs of joining to the sewer line, the water authority is who’s responsible for blocked drains outside your property.

According to Citizen’s Advice UK:

You don’t have to maintain or repair lateral drains that you share with your neighbour – your water company is responsible for these.

Choosing a Water Drainage Expert You Can Trust

Contact the experienced and professional team at Watermains and Drains UK today for emergency assistance or guidance on your drainage needs. Providing reliable Drain Unblocking in Manchester, they are certified as water industry approved contractors (WIAPS), so you can rest assured you have industry-vetted professionals on hand when you need them the most.