Water Industry Act 1991

107 Right of sewerage undertaker to undertake the making of communications with public sewers.E+W

(1)Where a person gives to a sewerage undertaker notice under section 106 above of his proposal to have his drains or sewer made to communicate with a public sewer of that undertaker, the undertaker may—

(a)within fourteen days after the receipt of the notice; or

(b)if any question arising under the notice requires to be determined by [F1the Director], within fourteen days after the determination of that question,

give notice to that person that the undertaker intends itself to make the communication.

(2)If, after a notice has been given to any person under subsection (1) above, that person proceeds himself to make the communication, he shall be guilty of an offence and liable, on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding level 4 on the standard scale.

(3)Where a sewerage undertaker has given a notice under subsection (1) above—

(a)the undertaker shall have all such rights in respect of the making of the communication as the person desiring it to be made would have; but

(b)it shall not be obligatory on the undertaker to make the communication until either—

(i)there has been paid to the sewerage undertaker any such sum, not exceeding the undertaker’s reasonable estimate of the cost of the work, as the undertaker may have required to be paid to it; or

(ii)there has been given to the undertaker such security for the payment of the cost of the work as it may reasonably have required.

(4)If any payment made to a sewerage undertaker under subsection (3) above exceeds the expenses reasonably incurred by it in the carrying out of the work in question, the excess shall be repaid by the undertaker; and, if and so far as those expenses are not covered by such a payment, the undertaker may recover the expenses, or the balance of them, from the person for whom the work was done.

F2[(4A)Any dispute between a sewerage undertaker and any other person as to—

(a)whether the undertaker’s estimate of the cost of works given under subsection (3)(b)(i) above is reasonable,

(b)whether any requirement of security for the payment of the cost of works was reasonably made by the undertaker, or

(c)whether any excess is repayable, or any expenses are recoverable, by the undertaker under subsection (4) above, or the amount of any such excess or expenses,

may be referred to the Director for determination under section 30A above by either party to the dispute.]

(5)Sections 291, 293 and 294 of the M1Public Health Act 1936 (which provide for the means of, and for limitations on, the recovery of expenses incurred by a local authority) shall apply in relation to the recovery by a sewerage undertaker of any sums under this section as they apply in relation to the recovery of expenses under that Act by a local authority.

(6)For the purposes of this section, the making of the communication between a drain or private sewer and a public sewer includes all such work as involves the breaking open of a street.