Hi,

I bought my property 17 years ago and a few years in we experienced blocked drains due to a sagging pipe join between our own sewerage drain and where it connected to our neighbours own drain which connects to the public sewer. I had the issue resolved and although there has been no issue with the drains since it was brought to my attention that one leg of our drainage system did not have enough fall. The system has various legs as detailed below:

Kitchen -> leg 1 -> manhole 'A' LH turn -> Leg 2 -> manhole 'B' with junction connection for bathrooms -> leg 3 -> neighbours drain
Bathrooms -> leg 4 -> manhole 'B' -> leg 3 -> neighbours drain

The legs between manholes A & B is the area where the fall is not optimum. If I take either manhole cover off I can see that there is still water between these 2 points. If I run the kitchen tap I can see the water flowing all the way through and down into my neighbours drain however.

Until recently I've just lived with this as it isn't an issue day to day, ie any poop that does end up in back flow in there is quickly washed away once the washing m/c is used etc. We've recently been considering moving and I'm now unsure where we stand in legal terms and from a surveyors viewpoint. Is this something that a surveyor would pick up on as an issue?

In terms of trying to redo the drainage pipes to get sufficient fall I think it would be quite an outlay as i'm pretty sure we'd have to redo all the way from the kitchen to manhole B which is approx 20m all in. This has been the main reason I've just left things as they've always been.

Thanks in advance.

Thanks for the reply. I wasn't sure how much of an issue it was in the grand scheme of things as this is the only house I've ever owned and wasn't sure if this might be something i'd need to remedy before I could even think of trying to sell. I'll probably see if I can get a quote if for work to remedy it but to a none tradesman like me it looks like a large piece of work to undertake given the paved driveway will have to come up and the same for the paving down the side of the house. I'm not entirely convinced there's even enough fall from the kitchen drain to boundary with my neighbour either. After popping into the local buildings office this morning and finding out how much it'll cost to connect to the main public sewer I think the original builder of the property decided to chance it and save himself some money into the bargain.

Thanks again anyway :)