Important legal changes to the ownership of your sewers

[charitynjw]

Has anyone else received a booklet about this?

In simple terms, the utility company are taking on responsibility for the section of the sewer from your boundary to the main sewer. (Shared services are a little more complicated).

Of course, because of the extra responsibility, this may require an extra charge on the bill, estimated at between £3 & £14 per year. (This small section of the sewer, as you are well aware, requires a lot of inspection & maintenance).

As the booklet says, this will affect half of the properties in England & Wales.

You can see an example here http://www.thameswater.co.uk/cps/rde...s.xsl/8654.htm

The change takes place on October 1st, 2011, & you have 2 months from service of notice to appeal to Ofwat.
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Btw, if anyone has looked at the video ( http://www.thameswater.co.uk/cps/rde...s.xsl/8655.htm ), rewind it & see how clean the engineers repairing that underground pipe are. Even their gloves are pristine!!
Bet their mums use Persil!!!!

[Amethyst]

Re: Important legal changes to the ownership of your sewers

Yip, had a letter the other day from Severn Trent, seems quite sensible to me.

[enaid]

Re: Important legal changes to the ownership of your sewers

You should check your insurance now it may be that you pay less.

[Caspar]

Re: Important legal changes to the ownership of your sewers

Shame they don't take responsibility for the bit of sewer on your own land though, as this part of the sewerage sytem is a real money spinner.

[charitynjw]

Re: Important legal changes to the ownership of your sewers

Yip, had a letter the other day from Severn Trent, seems quite sensible to me.

Example:

Customer's drainage is connected to the main drainage system, which is located at a fair depth running through that customer's back garden.
Therefore, the new fee should not apply.
Unusual installation? Well, it is what I have, & all my neighbours on both sides of a very long road.
How many of them are aware of this? Not one of the six I have spoken to so far (sorry, now seven).
Is the utility company going to inspect all of their customers' properties to see if the new charge is applicable?
As far as I can see, it will be the customer's responsibility to identify the route & complexity of their drainage installation, & then appeal to Ofwat if necessary.

[Amethyst]

Re: Important legal changes to the ownership of your sewers

I had a temping job at Anglian Water some years back. It was a special project which involved mapping all the sewers. Very exciting it wasn't. But, the water companies do have maps of all the sewers and drainage systems, where private join to public and so on.

As I read it the new charge isn't a specific charge for properties where most of the sewer system is being taken over by the water companies - it's an average increase in bills across the board to cover the costs of maintaining and fixing the additional meterage of pipes.

Basically you are responsible for the bit from your house to where it joins to either a main sewer or to where it merges with a sewer also serving another property. Should get rid of a fair few neighbour disputes who pays for rodding the drains when number 36 has flushed a wad of kitchen towell.

[Amethyst]

Re: Important legal changes to the ownership of your sewers

Sewer ownership : Household : Severn Trent Water explains it quite clearly I think/ The letter I received from them was very good and in PIL, which makes a change.

[Caspar]

Re: Important legal changes to the ownership of your sewers

Now that is going to be a million times better. How do I wish I'd had that at my last property where 4 of us kept having to share £200+ bills for people flushing sanitary towells down their toilets and blocking up a shared sewer. We were all four single men, so it clearly wasn't us, but we didn't know who else shared the system.

Well worth a few extra pounds a year in my book.