Hi,

Quick recap: I have a shared private sewer in my garden - 6" clay pipe,
I and 3 other houses make use of it. From me it goes to the main sewer.

A CCTV survey (as a result of a blockage) showed 3 points of root
ingress and one break with a lateral displacement of the pipe.

The root balls are fine clumps about 20-30% of the pipe CSA.

The lateral break looks to be about 1/2 to 1" - hard to tell on the
video, but enough to stop me rodding them and enough to make the bloke's
jetting harder and definately the cause of one of the blockages.



Long and short - insurers will pay, but want the 3 other households to
cough up nearly 700 quid each. One guy has no excess and is covered so
he's in the clear, the other 2 are still checking but obviously worried.


Some of them are complaining (ironically including the guy who it won't
cost a bean), basically saying "why do you need them fixed" and "all
clay drains have roots and leak a bit".

My gut instinct is roots are just likely to get worse, and the lateral
shifted break definately needs fixing and not fixing all of the 4
problems will just become a source of grief in the future.


I do have an insurance excess, but by the time I have submitted the
costs of the original CCTV and the jetting to the isnurers who will
cover that too, I'm not going to be any worse off - 500 quid down either
way.

I do feel sorry if either of the remain 2 people aren't covered.


What do you all think - is it unreasonable to want to get roots and a
cracked joint fixed?


Cheers

Tim

PS

Similar posted to uk.l.m for position on legalities of leaking foul
water into the ground.