On Sun, 05 Jul 2009 23:32:25 GMT, Phil L wrote:

chris French wrote:
In message , Phil L
writes
chris French wrote:
OK, situation, our Victorian detached house, fronts directly onto
the pavement in our village.

There is a soil pipe at the front of the house, put in AFAIK in the
70's, maybe early '80s when a bedroom was converted to a bathroom,
draining into the public sewer in the road. It sees to be just our
drain, so AIUI that makes it our responsibility

There is manhole cover over the drain in the pavement - this is
just a pressed steel jobbie, not a cast one as would be used by a
utility, it has rusted through in one of the dips in one of the
handle areas so I figure that I need to replace it before someone
puts a foot through it one day.

Now, with a bit of luck I might be able to just put a new lid on,
but I know that often it ends up easier to replace the frame as
well. But being in the pavement, what implications does this have?
Presumably the local authority might have something to say about
this, seeing as they have responsibility for the pavements? Will the
lid need to be to a certain standard? If I have to replace the frame
would I need to use certain contractors? etc.

I know I could just contact them, but I like to go into these things
with a bit of awareness of the what the requirements are



If someone tripped over a raised slab or pothole in the pavement
outside your house, who would be held responsible?

It's not your responsibility, it's the council's, unless you *own*
the strip of pavement in front of your house.

Hmm, not sure it might be as simple as that though.

AIUI, I am responsible for the drain until it reaches the sewer in the
road outside - which could reasonably mean the manhole as well.

you understand incorrectly then, you are responsible for it until it exits
your property, so if you open your door straight onto a pavement (which if
I've read it correctly, you do) then the drains are the responsibility of
the council, and this manhole is theirs too, regardless of who installed it
and when.


Yes, the council are responsible for the pavement. But if they find or
are made aware of a problem with the cover, it could well be that they
can pass the responsibility for the manhole cover onto me - either
asking me too fix it, or fixing it and then passing the cost onto me.

They can't pass their responsibility onto anyone, it's theirs in law....what
would they do if the house was empty? - they can't have pedestrians falling
into open manholes and then plead that they couldn't establish who owned it!

I've checked into this and we are definitely responsible for our combined
foul and surface water drain until it joins the public sewer in the middle
of the road - therefore if there is a problem, we will have to pay for a
council approved contractor to fix it. Well actually that's not true in our
case (just for the rest of the street) - we *would* be responsible,
*except* that our house is 1935, the neighbouring bungalow is 1934 and for
some reason their kitchen shares our drain, even though they have their own
drain on the other side, so a pre-1937 shared drain makes it the
waterboard's responsibility (thank God as it collapsed in two places!)

In the OPs case, the manhole is part of what is likely to be his drain and
therefore might well be his responsibility.

SteveW