Sewer Pipes Overflowing - Council Won't Help

The drains in my back yard are overflowing. I've tried everything myself, called Dyno-Rod out. Neither of us could get at the blockage, which is some way off my property and out toward the main road.
I called Dublin City Council out and the guy checked the main sewer in the road, he says that is fine.
His contention is that anything between the main line and my house is my responsibility, even if it's not on my property.
Does anyone know if this is correct?
I'm responsible for sewers below a public lane?

Anyway, it's all a bit stressful, so any advice would be appreciated.

--Max

We have had a similar issue in our estate, our row of houses link to a common sewage line under the back gardens which runs to the sewage mains on the street, the council will only address issues with the mains sewage and not the shared line.
We have to work out from which house the blockage is (or if it's the last house in the run before the mains) and get the professionals in to sort the blockage (last time face-wipes...sigh) - depending on where the blockage is the affected houses share the callout cost(s).

Max Johnson said:

His contention is that anything between the main line and my house is my responsibility, even if it's not on my property.
Does anyone know if this is correct?

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That's not entirely correct.

- Any problem with waste water sewers on public land is Irish Waters responsibility. (Dublin City Council act as their service providers on the ground)
- Any problem with waste water sewers on your land is your responsibility.
- Any problem with waste water sewers on your neighbours land is their responsibility.

These kind of problems are common in older housing estates where common sewers run through numerous properties before reaching the public sewer. When applying for Planing Permission for modern housing estates, it usually a condition that all sewers are located in Public Areas in so far as possible to avoid this problem.

You will need to know where the problem is before you can address it. A CCTV survey of the sewer between your property and the public sewer should identify where the problem is located.

What you are on is what is called a "combined drain" under the Act. Responsibility for this type of drain is the responsibility of the people connected to it. And I believe this extends up to and including the point of connection to the main sewer.

It's a private shared drain. A combined drain is one which carries both sewage and rain/surface water. You are right though, the responsibility for maintenance/ repair is with those connected to it, even when it passes through public land. Local Authority, and now Irish Water responsibilities are limited to the public sewer. Previous threads here, here, etc.

I had this exact problem about 8 years ago , I paid a company and got a camera put down, 15m from my front gate under one of the busiest roads in Dublin was where our sewer joined the main sewer (3 houses) . My sewer out pipe was blocked by a Gas main pipe which cut straight across 80% of the pipe.
The nice man in Dublin city council upon seeing the video evidence said that they will send the robot up from the main sewer pipe, a few days later he confirmed that the gas main had been pushed through the ground and there were some houses affected a few years previous. Within 2 weeks they had the main road dug up and new junction fitted (big job 5 + guy's jcb, trucks, traffic diverted etc.) I was a very happy camper as you can imagine, he told me the gas company were billed for 35k, so check if any pipes have been pushed in the area, send a camera down, we could only ever get it partially unblocked by Dynorod , two months later it would block again, if Dynorod can’t fix it, it may be a collapsed pipe of something like mine.
Good luck I know it’s very annoying when you can’t see a problem.

Had the same issue - shared drain was blocked in three locations. Had to call small meeting with my neighbours and we all had to pay individually for our part of the drain to be unblocked. So you need to contact everyone on the same shared pipe as you and ask them to allow access for the unblocking guy and try and get some arragement on them sharing costs - may be hard if their drain is not blocked.

A combined drain is defined in the Local Government ( sanitary services) Act 1948 as "a single private drain used for drainage of two or more separate premises "

rayn said:

A combined drain is defined in the Local Government ( sanitary services) Act 1948 as "a single private drain used for drainage of two or more separate premises "

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You'll note that act calls out the distinction between drains and sewers.

Hi Max, We had that problem about 20 years ago. Waiting for the Council is like waiting for Godot in the famous play. It is likely that you will have the same result waiting for neighbours.

Solution:- Buy sewer rods. They are not too expensive, but you will need enough of them to reach the location of the blockage. More than likely the blockage is caused by a brick or part of a brick (perhaps even some concrete or even some cloths). The blockage needs to be pulled pack to the source of where you inserted the rods or pushed into the main drain.

Therefore, you will need (i) the maggot which is two pronged and will tear into the cloths and after twisting the rods it grips into the plastic or cloths blocking. You pull bringing the cloths or plastic towards you. You might need (ii) a flap fixture. You use this in two ways (a) to push the blockage or (b) manoeuvere it beyond the blockage and pull then pull back towards you.

Neither of these connections is expensive. Ensure you use gloves, have a strong stomach beforehand and a drop of the hard stuff afterwards.