Sewage Flooding Claim Settles

We acted for a family in  the north west who had suffered repeated sewer flooding to their family home following works undertaken to their sewer system.

Our clients had no prior history of flooding, yet after the works they experienced more than a decade of repeated sewage flooding incidents.

This resulted in property damage and significant distress. We helped our client through a complaints process including to the independent adjudicator for sewerage companies and to obtain disclosure and information detail before sending pre-action correspondence. That correspondence set out our clients’ claims in negligence and nuisance. A key document in this case was the “at-risk” register which our clients relied on to show that there was a change of circumstances and that would require an explanation from the sewerage undertaker in any proceedings where the result was to push sewage flooding onto our clients’ property. Our clients’ case that the changes would have been foreseeable was supported by carrying out of subsequent works that exacerbated the problem for our client and one other property but alleviated flooding issues for other nearby properties.

The decision in Manchester Ship Canal Company Ltd v United Utilities Water Ltd (No. 2) [2024] UKSC 22 brought into sharp focus the potential scope for standalone claims in tort (negligence/nuisance) when it comes to claims against sewerage undertakers where they are performing their statutory functions under the Water Industry Act 1991 (“1991 Act”). The claim we intimated did not conflict with those functions and we relied on a decision of High Court (TCC) as an example where a specialist court found for a claimant against negligent operational decisions/failings by undertakers which give rise to actionable torts and are not claims to which undertakers are afforded a defence of statutory authority or otherwise barred.

The case settled, with our clients recovering  significantly more than would have been awarded in respect of flooding incidents under the statutory compensation scheme provided by the 1991 Act.