Both you and the landlord (if you’re the tenant) should take partial responsibility for the drains and their maintenance. It’s quite hard to determine what is the landlord’s or tenants fault when it comes to drainage systems, but there are a few things to look out for.
External Damage
If the drainage system is damaged from the outside with cracked or broken pipes then it’s highly likely it’s your landlord's problem and they should do all they can to have them repaired.
What do you pour down your drains - if you’re a tenant, are you negligent?
However, as a tenant it is up to you to take some responsibility for what goes down your drains, carelessness about what you put down can cause blockages which are hard to solve without professional help. You may therefore be expected to make some contribution towards the repairs if a professional drainage expert is called in to rectify the blockage.
Don’t dismiss what you pour down the drains
There are many items that seem pretty innocuous at first glance but cannot go down the kitchen or bathroom drains because they’re likely to cause a blockage. These items are anything from coffee grounds, cat litter and eggshells to oil, cotton balls and disposable wipes.
Clogging
Build up of items that shouldn’t go down the drain can cause long-term damage. A build up of these items could and often do cause drain blockages which are hard to eliminate with a simple plunger or chemicals found at your local hardware store. It is often a professional job where a plumber or drainage expert is called upon to get rid of the blockage safely and hygienically.
Who pays for repairs?
When the tenant hasn’t caused the blockage then it is the duty of the landlord to rectify the damage and pay for all of the repairs. There could be a blockage that’s spotted from within the property, but it could be caused by external factors. What kind of factors could these be?
Adverse weather can cause drain blockages.
There are several reasons why a blockage can occur externally, and these can include adverse weather conditions causing tree roots to block the drains, collapsed or damaged pipes which we mentioned earlier which is not down to negligence on the part of the tenant.
CCTV Surveys can help assess the problem.
Sometimes these issues can be complex enough to require a drainage expert to come and assess the situation. Often they will use CCTV drain surveys to inspect the drains deep down so that they can identify the root of the problem. If the problem, once it is identified, turns out to be similar to what we’ve mentioned earlier, then the tenant is not at fault.
Here at East of Scotland Drainage we use sophisticated technology such as CCTV drain surveys to identify complex drainage issues so we can help alleviate the problem and get things back to normal. And before they jeopardize the health and safety of occupants and risk contaminating water sources.
Speak to the Drainage Experts
We hope you’ve found thid post interesting and useful, regardless of whether you’re a tenant or landlord. If you think you may have a question about what we’ve talked about today, or you think you have a drainage issue you can’t resolve yourself, why not give one of our team a call and we’ll do all we can to help.