Access Removed to Manhole & Wastewater pipe

[RedRuby]

Hello All

I have rats in the loft. Their presence was discovered last summer and actions were takenA at the time to start getting rid of them. They disappeared for a short time but are back. I am now on my third Pest Control person having gone through the Council Pest Control department and a private Pest Control man stewarded with BPCA membership. I shan’t go into the ins and outs of what occurred, lest to say neither were very good nor helpful.

However, the new Pest Control man is the real deal and knows his stuff. He advises the rats are coming up from the main sewer and finding their way into my home via a broken and/or dropped wastewater/sewer pipe. I am fitting rat flaps on all my underground sewer/waste pipes in order to hopefully stop the rats from gaining entry into my home per his advice.

However, there is a problem. I live in a terraced property and my wastewater pipe at the back of my property joins the shared lateral drain running under my next door neighbours property. Access to this part of my pipe can only be gained from their manhole which has had an extension built over it and is tiled over in expensive looking tiles.

I have paid the new Pest Control man a £500 deposit as he is coming to put a camera down all the pipes and find out exactly where the pipe breakage/problem is and how bad it is. He needs access to my neighbours manhole in order to view my pipe but this is currently not possible.

What do I do? Do I have any legal rights regarding access to this part of my pipe under my neighbours property? I can’t live with the rats in my house for much longer.

Any advice would be very welcome.




Thank-you

[atticus]

Have you spoken to your neighbours? I ask as we have a manhole under our patio, but the particular paving slab is easily lifted to gain access. I wonder if your neighbour's patio might in fact be similar.

[RedRuby]

Good morning Atticus,

Thank you for your reply.

I have spoken to my neighbours. They did not build the extension (that was the neighbours before) but they have recently installed a brand new kitchen in it and tiled the floor with these extra large tiles. Possibly marble. It would take two people to lift one. They are befitting of a grand hotel lobby.

I asked where the manhole was and the neighbour was a bit sheepish. He is aware there is one under the kitchen floor but has tiled over it without leaving a hatch all the same. I do not know if the manhole is accessible at all as I was pointed to the soak-away in the garden instead, which is not what I need access to. I also do not know the condition of it.

The Pest Control chap is on hold as is my ability to fit a rat flap to my wastewater pipe at the main connection point.

Naturally, I would prefer to sort this amicably and have said neighbour remove the tile(s) and allow us access without a to do. However, given the floor is new and likely expensive I am not sure how well that will go down. I am also not sure if the manhole chamber has been partially filled in or not or re-routed as extension was done pre 2011.

[tesla6518]

Have you checked your property title at the land registry (£3) and under charges it will show if there are any easements that affect your waste pipe system. This would be my starting point.

[RedRuby]

Good Afternoon Tesla6518,

Thank-you for your reply.

No I have not but I shall do that today and report back when I have the information.

[RedRuby]

I have purchased the Title Register from the Land Registry and in it the ‘combined drain’ is mentioned. Thank you Tesla6518!


Below is the exact information copied word for word from the Title Register with only personal identifying information such as names and addresses changed/omitted for privacy:

A: Property Register
This register describes the land and estates comprised in this title.

‘The land has the benefit of the following rights granted by but is subject to the following rights reserved by a Conveyance of the land in this title dated 10 August 1933 made between (1) Mr Joe Bloggs (Vendor) and (2) Miss Jane Doe (Purchaser):- "Together with the right for the Purchaser and her successors in title (in common with other persons entitled thereto) to the use of the combined drain running through the premises numbered 195 and 197 Acacia Road adjoining as indicated on the said plan she and they paying a fair proportion of the expense of keeping the same in repair And together with the right for the Purchaser and her successors in title if necessary to enter on the said premises adjoining for the purpose of cleansing repairing and renewing the said combined drain Reserving to the Vendor and his successors in title the owners and occupiers for the time being of the premises adjoining and numbered or intended to be numbered 201 Acacia Road in common with the Purchaser and her successors in title the use of the combined drain running through the premises hereby conveyed as indicated on the said plan Together with the right of entering on the said premises hereby conveyed for the purpose of cleansing repairing and renewing the said common drain." ¬NOTE:-Copy plan filed.’


197 is my next door neighbour with the kitchen extension and unaccessible manhole.

I have only purchased the £3 version of the Title Register and am aware there is a £7 version available which may or may not include other info.

What should my next steps be?

Many thanks

[RedRuby]

‘And together with the right for the Purchaser and her successors in title if necessary to enter on the said premises adjoining for the purpose of cleansing repairing and renewing the said combined drain’

So I do indeed have the legal right to ask for entry into my neighbours property/land for the purpose of dealing with the maintenance of the shared drain.

What I am now confused about however, is if the legislation for The Water Industry (Schemes for Adoption of Private Sewers 2011) overrides this or not? Whether our shared lateral drain is now the responsibility of the Water Company and no longer ours and if my wastewater pipe which carries my wastewater away is still solely my responsibility or not?

I want to put a rat flap on my wastewater pipe not on the shared lateral drain. I also want to discover where the discrepancies in the shared lateral drain and my wastewater pipe are, if any, so that they can be fixed.

Last year I spoke to the Water Company with regards to whether or not the drains had been passed over to them and they couldn’t tell me. They denied they had the plans for my sewerage system which turned out to be untrue. I know this as last year I kicked up such a fuss about having the drain surveyed by them, they sent a man with a camera round to inspect the drain but the problem was they couldn’t fully inspect my neighbours section of the drain due to the manhole issue. This man told me to my face he had been looking at the drainage map of my property in his van before he knocked on my door.

I seem to be chasing my tail constantly and due to this I am being made to share my home with rats. I can’t go on like this.

[tesla6518]

Have you obtain the plan from land registry that it states, Note: copy plan filed. This should indicate to you where all the access points are and the direction of travel of the pipes up to the main sewage pipe connection.

You could always send a Subject Access Request to your water authority, asking for specific information regarding the adoption of the joint use sewage pipe,
if this fails I would contact the water authority regulator and explain the matter.

With regards to your neighbour and their nice new tiles, I would be as nice as pie about then getting the system changed so that all of you as listed in the easement can access the manhole, if they are uncooperative you can apply to the county court for an injunction ordering them to make the manhole accessible. However if you got as far as considering that option I would point out to your neighbour the considerable expense this would involve, lawyers, court cost, your costs all because they have blocked your right of access. It is probable that they took little notice of the easement when they purchased the property and could try the argument that they were unaware of the easement, they would then have to prove that their conveyancer did not point out the easement, Very hard thing to prove.

[RedRuby]

Thank you Tesla6518.

I very much value and appreciate your help on this.

First off I shall apply for the full files from the Land Registry today and hope the ‘copy plan filed’ is in that bundle of documentation.

I will update the thread when I have that.

My Water Company has a third party website called Digdat which is meant to hold all the drainage plans (if they hold them) for all the properties being served under said Water Company. I have tried to access this but when I input my address into it, it brings up another Water Company - Anglian Water - instead of mine. I am not served by Anglian Water which is in another part of the country far away from where my Water Company operates.

It is woeful.

[wales01man]

We are in Oxfordshire waste water is via Anglian and water by thames water could be same in the OP s case

[RedRuby]

Thank-you for your reply Wales01Man.

We are definitely only served by one Water Company for both supply and wastewater.

[des8]

Rather than going down the court route, to begin with it might be worth while talking to your local building enforcement officer.
I think you will find that sealing up an inspection chamber in the manner of your neighbour contravenes building regulations .
The council might require it being opened up

[RedRuby]

Good Morning Des8,

Thank you for your reply.

I wish to be prepared for this situation should it end up going the court route. The neighbours were made aware, by us, of the rat infestation in our property & garden last year. They had also seen movement of something in our garden and theirs and had said something to us with regards to it but did not make it clear they had spotted rats, possibly because they weren’t sure themselves. Since then, we have positive sightings of rats in our garden. The neighbours are also aware they have covered over the manhole because I wanted to see the manhole. They have not made any attempt so far to make the manhole accessible. None of this is looking fruitful.

I intend to speak to them again regards the situation before I get the Water Company and/or Building Control involved. It would be in their favour to just quietly get on with rectifying their mistake, however, if they choose to not do so I will be forced to force them.

In the meantime, I want to have all my ducks in a row.

[atticus]

I do not have any answers to this.

I wonder whether the solution will be to re-route the particular pipes around the foundations of your neighbour's extension. No doubt this would be expensive, but surely less expensive than the alternative.

Is there any chance that this vermin problem is covered by your insurance?

[RedRuby]

Thank you Atticus.

I won’t be paying for re-routing my drain because my neighbours have illegally built over the manhole cover which must by law be able to be accessed by myself and 3 other sets of neighbours as written in the deeds of all 4 of our properties. I have since found the original copies of the Deeds when our property was purchased and will update the thread with the information. Surely the Water Company and Council also require access to the manhole in case of an emergency flood, blockage or sewer collapse?

It is impossible to say whether or not my insurance covers anything at the moment until I can establish who is responsible for the shared lateral drain due to the Adoption of Private Sewers 2011 legislation. This piece of legislation has really thrown a spanner in the works because it is not clear if my Water Company are now responsible or whether we still are. ‘We’ being the four sets of neighbours. The drains which take my wastewater from my property and deliver it to the shared lateral drain, are, as I understand it, solely my responsibility. Access to them however, surely must be a shared responsibility as they cross my land and onto my neighbours land.

Tesla6518 suggested I put a SAR in with my Water Company to ask if they have formally adopted our shared lateral drain or not. I have a query regards this; isn’t a SAR for the purpose of asking an org what personal information they hold on you? Is a SAR the correct form for asking about whether or not they have adopted our private shared drain? Or is a Freedom of Information request a better way or asking for this information? Or something else perhaps?

Many thanks