Public Health Act 1875

23Power of local authority to enforce drainage of undrain houses.

Where any house within the district of a local authority is without a drain sufficient for effectual drainage, the local authority shall by written notice require the owner or occupier of such house, within a reasonable time therein specified, to make a covered drain or drains emptying into any sewer which the. local authority are entitled to use, and which is not more than one hundred feet from the site of such house ; but if no such means of drainage are within that distance, then emptying into such covered cesspool or other place not being under airy house as the local authority direct ; and the local authority may require any such drain or drains to be of such materials and size, and to be laid at such level, and with such fall as on the report of their surveyor may appear to them to be necessary.

If such notice is not complied with, the local authority may, after the expiration of the time specified in the notice, do the work required, and may recover in a summary manner the expenses incurred by them in so doing from the owner, or may by order declare the same to be private improvement expenses.

Provided that where, in the opinion of the local authority, greater expense would be incurred in causing the drains of two or more houses to empty into an existing sewer pursuant to this section, than in constructing a new sewer and causing such drains to empty therein, the local authority may construct such new sewer, and require the owners or occupiers of such houses to cause their drains to empty therein, and may apportion as they deem just the expenses of the construction of such sewer among the owners of the several houses, and recover in a summary manner the sums apportioned from such owners, or may by order declare the same to be private improvement expenses.