Human/pet faesces in living room: advice

[leclerc]

Ok, this one is for a friend of a friend but they have relayed this to me.
Their friend is in council accomodation and on Friday night, raw sewage came out onto their carpet. After a council plumber came out twice it was found to be a blocked pipe caused by possibly human shyte or pet shyte being put down a sink. They live in a block of flats and they don't use the sink as a toilet but have had a neighbour who has a dog who has been sweeping shyte into their garden(it is an aside but may or may not be related). Anyway, they spoke to the council due to having to throw away carpets and the council have said that they need to go through their insurance(he doesn't have contents insurance at all due to not having much £££).
However, the sewage has come out again and they have had their kitchen pulled out so that Drain Doctor can come out and put camera's down to find out where the blockage is. It is likely they will have to throw out their living room kitchen. The stench is horrific and they are living more or less in their bedroom due to the issue.

Is there anything that they can do to get the council either to rehouse them, even for the short time? Or should they simply call environmental health? They literally have human/pet waste in their kitchen sink at the moment. It's horrific for them.

[des8]

Re: Human/pet faesces in living room: advice

If the blockage is in the public sewers and is due to negligence by the water utility (they are responsible for disposal of waste water) compensation is due.(but it tends to be minimal)

The fact that a blockage was cleared but has reoccurred causing back up of sewage, indicates a problem possibly other than neighbours disposing of waste inappropriately.
Perhaps there is a collapsed drain?

If the kitchen fittings have been contaminated by raw sewage they really should discard them.

Certainly contact Environmental Health..... if they declare the property unfit for human habitation the council should provide temporary accommodation.
This link might provide useful pointers altho' really deals with private renting: http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_ad...d_safety/hhsrs

[leclerc]

Re: Human/pet faesces in living room: advice

I am afraid the advice came way too late and with all due respect, I'd looked on shelter for information but was hoping someone knowledgeable on housing advice with a specialism on council housing might have been here.

The result of everything was kitchen ripped out and investigations appear to show that waste was blocked up due to the neighbours negligence. He was temporarily moved out of his house whilst work was done to fix the problem and to re do the kitchen.

There may be other things but this situation is more or less resolved.

Thanks Des for spotting this thread but the time for answering it for a speedy resolution has disappointingly passed for this place to be of use on this occasion.

[des8]

Re: Human/pet faesces in living room: advice

Hope the resolution was as satisfactory as possible.
I've been pretty busy over the past week on other things and didn't spot the thread till yesterday.