Drainage Laws and Responsibilities

If you have any queries regarding your responsibility for your drains here are a few simple guidelines to ownership. We can offer dye test surveys to confirm responsibility and are always happy to give free drainage advice and help with sewerage laws.

Drainage Laws

A pipeline which conveys foul sewage and/or surface water run-off from a single property. It is usually of small internal diameter.

Sewer and Sewage Laws

A pipeline which normally conveys foul sewage and/or surface water run-off from more than one property.

Public Sewer Responsibility

A sewer that has been adopted as a public sewer or was in use prior to the 1st October 1937. (Note: This general definition does not apply to properties in inner London, for which local guidance should be sought).

Who is Responsible for a Private Sewer?

If a problem occurs at a point along a private sewer, the properties which drain to that point are jointly and equally responsible for the cost of dealing with the problem. The cost of clearing a blockage would therefore be paid for equally by all property owners upstream of the blockage.