Who is responsible for a blocked or broken drain?

A pipe that carries waste from your home alone, and sits within your property boundary, is usually your responsibility as the owner. That includes keeping it clear and repairing it if it cracks or collapses. Waste pipes inside the house and the underground drain up to the point where it joins a pipe serving other properties typically fall into this category.

In October 2011, most private sewers and lateral drains in England that connected to the public sewer transferred to the water companies. In general terms, a pipe that serves more than one property is a sewer, and the water company is usually responsible for it, even where it runs through private gardens. A lateral drain is the length serving a single property that lies outside its boundary, often under the pavement or road; that too generally became the water company's.

There are exceptions, such as some pipes on newer developments that had not yet been adopted, and drains that run to a septic tank or treatment plant rather than a public sewer. If in doubt, your water company can tell you whether a pipe is theirs.

Two questions get you most of the way. How many properties feed into the pipe where the problem is? And where is it: inside your boundary, or beyond it? If the blockage is in a chamber that only your house drains into, it is likely yours. If your neighbours' waste also passes through it, it is likely shared.

Older terraced streets often have a single shared pipe running behind the houses, with each home connecting into it. In that arrangement, only the short length from your house to the shared pipe is normally yours.

If you rent, start with your tenancy agreement. Landlords are usually responsible for structural repairs to the drains, such as cracked or collapsed pipes. Blockages can be less clear-cut: a blockage caused by something a tenant put down the drain may be treated differently from one caused by a defect in the pipe. Report the problem to your landlord or letting agent promptly in writing.

Landlords may find camera footage helpful in working out whether a blockage comes from use or from damage to the pipe.

In flats, drains serving several flats are often common parts managed by the freeholder or a managing agent, while pipes serving one flat may be the leaseholder's. The lease should set this out. Report problems to the managing agent so they can arrange access and approvals.

Responsibility often comes down to where exactly the fault is. A CCTV drain survey records the position of each defect and where the pipe joins others, which gives you something concrete to show the water company, a landlord or a managing agent. It also helps if you are buying; our pre-purchase drain survey page explains more.

If the problem turns out to be yours, our drain repair costs guide explains what is involved. If you are dealing with a blockage outside right now, our guide to a blocked outside drain covers the first steps.

Describe the problem and where it is, and we will tell you whether it looks like a job for us or for the water company.