Losingsleepoverdrainage

Today, we’ve spoken to a drainage expert who has told us that, contrary to what the binding rules state, we can actually produce up to 5000l of water to ground, not 2000l as we first thought. This chap works very closely with EA and British Water, and has not given us any reason to doubt anything else he’s advised, but I can’t seem to find anything regarding this in the rules. Any thoughts?

That’s also my understanding. Hopefully ‘Bucket of concrete’ will see sense if we tell him enough 🤞

Ha!

Yes I agree, although I think it’s been shortened rather than extended. Another neighbour (not connected to issue) remembers in last 30 years seeing water draining onto the road from further down the site, on the reg. Suspects the old farm manager cut it, as it suddenly stopped one day. See sketch. End point is pipe connected to a tank. Not a septic tank, but likely an old slurry tank from farm yard above. No longer serving original purpose though, just a chamber as far as we know. It has a corrugated roof just covered in soil, under an access track to the field beyond. And yep, land owner owns everything around us. Many thanks

This sounds interesting, will look into this with solicitor.

We’ve now had a conversation this morning with the land manager, where he threatened to chuck a bucket of concrete down our end of the pipe and cut us off! He claims we have no right to drain across the field towards the farm. We do. Nice chap! So much drama!

No worries! Thanks for the reply

Not sure if this is any more clear

Oh thank you, but Mr has managed to draft one up. Feel better soon!

We thought (had a doc to demonstrate amongst deeds and paperwork) it drained to a soakaway on the farm below us. Neighbours under this impression too. And we only discovered last week that the 4th house on our row was connected to our pipe, they were not aware of this. Our homes are converted from an old barn of the farm, which has since been purchased by the estate. No way of tracking down who fitted the drainage for all properties now, and I’d imagine they would own up to nothing. To clarify, we purchased our house at end of Dec 2019. I mentioned 2 years ago earlier in thread, it feels like 2 (we all lost a year or two somewhere) but was in fact 3 so pre new binding rules, but would still have been on radar of solicitors/estate agents etc. We should have had a drainage survey at the time, I know that.

Correct there isn’t.

So far, we’ve not managed to track him down. Emails and phone calls have gone unanswered. I might have to camp outside their gates until someone lets me in. But I definitely agree, this can’t go on.

Basic of most basic maps, it seems obvious to me what to do, and how to do it. Photo of end of pipe

I just wanted to thank everyone for their responses. It’s been frustrating and frankly quite lonely trying to find help and support so far, so to have had some great and thoughtful responses on here has given us a new energy to push forward, no matter how messy it gets. thanks all!

Yes, there is a river and mill stream around 150m downhill past the pipe, so if we have a STP in place, would sort the permit problem (as in no need for one). It seems like the only sensible way to make everyone - including land owner property - compliant.

You said it! You’d think people here would want rid of us by now! Will try and send over a map this morning.

Thanks for that. That’s interesting about the first sewerage connection, I’ll look into that today, thanks! Fortunately the neighbours who share the tank are all on board with the work that needs to be done to be compliant, it’s the land owner who owns the property that connects to the pipe further along who won’t listen right now… The biggest issue we have is that our current tank is undersized, we are producing too much water and need a permit. So EA will need to see that where we are draining to a legal end point in order to issue permit. If we were within the legal amount, I’d probably opt to just get a STP installed and let the land owner deal with the rest. It’s definitely a tricky one 🫤

That’s very kind, thank you. Let’s hope so! Your own experience sounds very stressful indeed. Hope things are much better now!

😞

At the time of purchase, we had documentation showing where the pipe ran which was backed up by neighbours understanding who have lived here 70 years. It seems that after recent drain investigation that this documentation was wrong and that the pipe overshoots by at least a further 40m under a farm yard onto another area of scrubland on the estate. I’m not sure where we stand legally on that, but I know we wouldn’t have bought this place knowing then what we do now. No idea why they’re being difficult. We’ve been dealing exclusively with the land manager, who is well known to be a bully. But he doesn’t like phone calls, has so far refused a meeting with myself and neighbours and cherry picks what detail to respond to in emails (ie not the important stuff!). I would like to try to communicate with the land owner himself, but it’s just getting to him that’s tricky. He seems to be locked away in a tower somewhere… Now we’re not made of money, but we are quite desperate to have this dealt with, which is why we offered to cover the land owners share of costs. But they have not accepted this offer so I’m not sure if it’s money driven. I’m fairly sure this chap doesn’t like that we’ve told him his pipe is non compliant. I get that it hurts to be told you’re wrong 🤷‍♀️

Thank you for your reply, and sympathies. We didn’t buy from them. They were present during the inspection of the pipe recently but refused to acknowledge the non compliance (obvious drainage onto rough ground). My fear with reporting them to EA is that they just cut us and our neighbours off. Not sure where we stand in that situation. We’ve asked them if they have a drainage company that they would choose to inspect as a second opinion, so waiting on that for now. We’ve even offered to cover the cost of the works on their part, but they’re not listening. We literally have no other option, so legal is probably the next route. Although where that’ll lead…. Thanks again!

Thank you, I absolutely wish we hadn’t now. We’ve explained that because they’re non-compliant, that makes 4 other properties both non compliant and unsellable. But it doesn’t seem to faze him at all. Our solicitor is up to speed on it, but has urged us to resolve amicably so far, but we’ve hit a dead end now. We’ve even offered today to pay what would be the share of their property on the pipe, so they just have to endure the works, which is on unused scrubland anyway. But nothing, not interested in helping at all. Hopefully tomorrow will bring better news. But I suspect we’ll lose our sale this week.

Thanks for your reply. Fortunately our buyers are pretty understanding, they have been through a similar situation themselves so are happy to wait until be can find a solution. We've offered a retainer so they don't need to worry about the cost, but they do want permissions in place before we exchange. Understandable. Problem we've got, according to EA and drainage company is that we only have 2 options at present, and land owner won't let us do either.

Thanks for the reply! Yes, we are all singing from the same song sheet, fortunately. They understand that, should we lose our sale, this will keep coming up any time anyone wishes to sell. I agree re contacting the EA, but the land manager hasn't given that any thought. Quote looks like £30k, at the moment.

Thanks so much for replying. That was my fear regarding EA. You're correct that it needs replacing. Our preference would be a STP between us and our neighbours with a drainage field in the field, however this can't be done due to percolation test coming back negative. We are out of options other than the ones that the EA suggested, and it seems the land owner isn't willing to do either. The land owner owns the 5th house that connects to the pipe. So we figured that they should want to also be compliant. Trouble is, they don't see it that way, and are refusing to have works done to the end of the pipe on their land. Cost can be covered - it's a lot, and obviously none of us want to, but we understand our responsibilities as homeowners with private drainage systems. It feels like we are going to lose this sale, but the problem will remain unless this gets sorted. For everyone. We are looking into possible recourse regarding why we weren't made aware of this at the time we purchased.