Blocked drains

[Milly48]

We've had a nasty smell in our house for the last few weeks, we narrowed it down to the drains. We were going to sort it out this weekend by rodding the outside drains to try & clear the blockage. Yesterday a neighbor came round (who has his own house maint business) & asked if he could look in our drains as 4 houses up the road from us have also been experiencing this nasty smell & have got blocked drains. In the interest of being neighbourly I said yes. To cut a long story short after a long day of rodding the drains in all 5 properties the blockage was found to be nappies & none of the 5 householders are responsible. The chap came round last night & was indicating that as he thought the actual blockage was in our drains we are going to get the bill, he's not splitting it 5 ways & it's up to us to try to get the other neighbors to contribute. Yours thoughts please.

[Oneeyedvic]

Very simple - if hedid the work, thank him very nicely and buy him a bottle of wine. You never authorised any work so it is not your responsibility. If he did work on your drains it is his responsibility, unless you implied you would pay him.

You don't need to give him anything, but to be nice a decent bottle of wine / scoth etc would be a cheap and effective solution.

[Milly48]

Good suggestion Thanks

[andy hughes]

I'd go along with the suggested solution. if you have not enetered into a contract with thei neighbour in his professional capacity, he has no right to ask you to pay the bill. It appears he was acting on behalf of people further  the street, and it is to them he should address his claim for services rendered. The bloackage may well have been located in your drain, but that does not infer liability. Try being nice, if that fails, be firm, but do not pay.

[Miss Zippy]

If he intended to charge you for his services, he should have made this clear to you before he commenced any work. Without going into detail on contract law, on the basis of what you say, there is no offer and no acceptance here so no contract for services. He is trying it on. 

[Milly48]

Thanks for your answers

[banana]

The others have given good answers and I cant add anything to that -except to say that the drains along our stretch of road was found to have a 'step' in them -right outside our house. A similar smelly thing happened a few years ago and the cause was sanitary towels supposedly. As we didnt put them down the drain they must have come from further along and just backed up against the step. Maybe this could be a cause -so everyone is equally responsible?

But dont pay him !

[BenDToy]

As a further comment, I believe that you are only responsible for your drains up to the point where they join the communal one. So if the blockage was causing a problem elsewhere, I don't think it can be your responsibility. And I agree with all other posters - you are NOT liable for the cost as you didn't authorise it.

[Dagman]

Stand your ground, he's taking the mick here. The neighbours asked him, not you, and did you see him actually removing these nappies? People are always trying it on aren't they. Point out you did not imply employing his services, he undertook the task himself by request of others so he can ask them, and, you didn't block the drain either!  Don't let him intimidate you into paying, he wouldn't! My partner revels in this kind of stuff and it's rubbed off on me as we were sick of Jack The Lad types so now we fob 'em off! Let us know how it goes.e

[simms]

Most councils have a service that will do this if not free then v cheap

[Tweed]

So if I understand this correctly, you caused the blockage, but were about to fix it when a contractor, hired by other neighbours suffering from the same problems fixed it first. It's a toughie. You aren't obliged to pay anything in my opinion. But, if you thought it was only yourselves who had the problem and would take care of it in your own time, then fair enough, but if you knew about the other neighbours having problems and delayed then I'd say you have a responsibility to pay the bill. If the former, then I think you should still pay something, as (if I understand correctly) you caused a problem for four of your neighbours. Whatever you do, don't fall out with the neighbours. Good luck.