Raw Sewage in the Garden - Again!

annash

Hi there, I wonder if anybody has any advice please as we are at the end of our tether. We are in rented accommodation and in receipt of rent allowance. My husband lost his job and we have no spare cash at all, barely get by on what we do get.

We have been renting this house for just over a year and have had nothing but problems with it - one of the recurring themes is the sewage. We are out in the sticks and so have a private sewage system, not covered by the council or local authority. We have had to have the landlords arrange to empty the sewage pit 4 or 5 times, as the chambers fill up and the sewage comes back up the manhole outside the kitchen window. Toilets also back up, so that when they flush it seems like it is going to overflow into the house - lucky so far, this hasn't happened. Finally, the landlord had the sewage pump replaced (with a dirty water pump) and for 3 months all was fine, ie, no sewage. A couple of weeks ago the sewage backed up to the house again, landlord, at first, refused to have it emptied, but finally conceded after some persuasion from my husband, however, the implication was that this was the last time. We contacted environmental health, who came out to take a look, said it was all very bad and would write to them and take them to court if need be - only problem is that they are in England and so it is doubtful that this will have any impact on the landlord at all as he can just ignore them.

Problem is, just been out in garden now, there is raw sewage coming out of the filtration chamber and just lying there on the grass. What can I do? Who can I contact to get this sorted as surely it is a serious health risk to the whole family - we have four kids - to have raw sewage lying there in your garden? We are desparately looking for somewhere else to live, but are severely restricted in our area, trying to keep the kids in their current schools etc and, of course, being on rent allowance.

We don't know what the next step to take would be to try and get them to sort out the sewage system - we can't afford lawyers, have spoken to Threshold who told us to get environmental health out, who have been, and to be fair, are doing their bit, but what happens in the short term - we have raw sewage in our garden

Please, if anybody has any advice, we would be so grateful . Thanks

Graces7

annash wrote: »

Hi there, I wonder if anybody has any advice please as we are at the end of our tether. We are in rented accommodation and in receipt of rent allowance. My husband lost his job and we have no spare cash at all, barely get by on what we do get.

We have been renting this house for just over a year and have had nothing but problems with it - one of the recurring themes is the sewage. We are out in the sticks and so have a private sewage system, not covered by the council or local authority. We have had to have the landlords arrange to empty the sewage pit 4 or 5 times, as the chambers fill up and the sewage comes back up the manhole outside the kitchen window. Toilets also back up, so that when they flush it seems like it is going to overflow into the house - lucky so far, this hasn't happened. Finally, the landlord had the sewage pump replaced (with a dirty water pump) and for 3 months all was fine, ie, no sewage. A couple of weeks ago the sewage backed up to the house again, landlord, at first, refused to have it emptied, but finally conceded after some persuasion from my husband, however, the implication was that this was the last time. We contacted environmental health, who came out to take a look, said it was all very bad and would write to them and take them to court if need be - only problem is that they are in England and so it is doubtful that this will have any impact on the landlord at all as he can just ignore them.

Problem is, just been out in garden now, there is raw sewage coming out of the filtration chamber and just lying there on the grass. What can I do? Who can I contact to get this sorted as surely it is a serious health risk to the whole family - we have four kids - to have raw sewage lying there in your garden? We are desparately looking for somewhere else to live, but are severely restricted in our area, trying to keep the kids in their current schools etc and, of course, being on rent allowance.

We don't know what the next step to take would be to try and get them to sort out the sewage system - we can't afford lawyers, have spoken to Threshold who told us to get environmental health out, who have been, and to be fair, are doing their bit, but what happens in the short term - we have raw sewage in our garden

Please, if anybody has any advice, we would be so grateful . Thanks

An appalling situation. Surely this makes the house uninhabitable and someone here will know if the landlord has obligations here that can be enforced so that you can get temporary accommodation?

Citizens info do have some free legal advice on offer; please seek them out tomorrow and see how thay can help?

StillWaters

Take photos of the garden, copies of your dealings with LL and EPA and get down to your local Council's housing department tomorrow. You are in urgent need of housing. This is disgraceful.

Graces7

StillWaters wrote: »

Take photos of the garden, copies of your dealings with LL and EPA and get down to your local Council's housing department tomorrow. You are in urgent need of housing. This is disgraceful.

EPA are great; they cannot act but they can put a rocket under the local council.

In case folk don't know, this is the Environmental Protection Agency. See their web site.

Vincent de Paul do have also some housing stock for emergencies like this.

The children need out of there and fast.