Public Health Act 1936

38 Drainage of buildings in combination.

(1) Where a local authority might under the last preceding section require each of two or more buildings to be drained separately into an existing sewer, but it appears to the authority that those buildings may be drained more economically or advantageously in combination, the authority may, when the drains of the buildings are first laid, require that the buildings be drained in combination into the existing sewer by means of a private sewer to be constructed either by the owners of the buildings in such manner as the authority may direct, or, if the authority so elect, by the authority on behalf of the owners :

Provided that a local authority shall not, except by agreement with the owners concerned, exercise the powers conferred by this subsection in respect of any building for the drainage of which plans have been previously passed by them.

(2) A local authority who make such a requirement as aforesaid shall fix the proportions in which the expenses of constructing, and of maintaining and repairing, the private sewer are to be borne by the owners concerned, or, in a case in which the distance of the existing sewer from the site of any of the buildings in question is or exceeds one hundred feet, the proportions in which those expenses are to be borne by the owners concerned and the local authority, and shall forthwith give notice of their decision to each owner affected.

An owner aggrieved by the decision of a local authority under this subsection may appeal to a court of summary jurisdiction; but, subject to any such appeal, any expenses reasonably incurred in constructing, or in maintaining or repairing, the private sewer shall be borne in the proportions so fixed, and those expenses, or, as the case may be, contributions thereto, may be recovered accordingly by the persons, whether the local authority or owners, by whom they were incurred in the first instance.

(3) A sewer constructed by a local authority under this section shall not be deemed to be a public sewer by reason of the fact that the expenses of its construction are in the first instance defrayed by the authority, or by reason of the fact that some part of those expenses is borne by them.

(4) So much of any local Act as empowers a local authority to require in certain cases the construction of a combined drain is hereby repealed.