Here is the answer to the question: Do you deal with drains and sewers?
Determining who is responsible is not always straightforward. There are three main types of drainage system. These are called drains, private sewers and public sewers.
A drain serves only one property and is the responsibility of the property owner until it joins a public sewer.
When the drains of two or more properties join, from that point on it is classed as a private sewer. It is then the joint responsibility of all the owners of the properties, which are connected to it to cleanse and maintain it.
However, all shared drains constructed before October 1937 were 'adopted' by the authorities which means they are public sewers, some sewers constructed after this date have also been adopted. Responsibility for cleansing and maintaining public sewers rests with the relevant Water Provider, which for the Stroud District is Severn Trent or Wessex Water - see details below.
In summary owners are responsible for individual drains and private sewers and the Water Provider is responsible for all public sewers.
You can get more information or assistance from:
Severn Trent on 0800 783 444 (most of the Stroud District)
Wessex Water on 0845 600 4 600 (some areas in the South of our district)
