The Water and Sewerage Services (Northern Ireland) Order 2006

Vesting of works in undertaker

241.—(1) Subject to paragraph (3) and to any provision to the contrary contained in an agreement between the relevant undertaker and the person in whom an interest in the pipe or works is or is to be vested—

(a) every relevant pipe which has been laid, in exercise of any power conferred by this Part or otherwise, by a relevant undertaker; and

(b) every water treatment works or waste water treatment works constructed by a relevant undertaker,

shall vest in the undertaker which laid it or, as the case may be, the undertaker which constructed them.

(2) In addition—

(a) every water main and so much of each service pipe with respect to which a declaration of vesting made by a water undertaker under Chapter II of Part IV takes effect shall also vest in that undertaker; and

(b) every sewer, lateral drain or waste water treatment works with respect to which a declaration of vesting made by a sewerage undertaker under Chapter II of Part VI takes effect shall also vest in that undertaker.

(3) Paragraph (1) shall not apply—

(a) to a service pipe laid in a street other than the street in which the water main with which it connects is situated;

(b) to a service pipe laid otherwise than in a street where that pipe is laid—

(i) in pursuance of the duty imposed by virtue of Article 80(4); or

(ii) in substitution for a service pipe belonging to a person other than the person who lays the replacement pipe.

(4) If any water fittings let for hire by a water undertaker are suitably marked, they—

(a) shall continue to be the property of and removable by the undertaker, even if they are fixed to some part of the premises in which they are situated or are laid in the soil under any premises; and

(b) shall not be subject to distress or to the landlord’s remedy for rent or be liable to be taken in execution under any process of any court or in any proceedings in bankruptcy against a person in whose possession they are;

but nothing in this paragraph affects the valuation for rating of any rateable hereditament.

(5) The preceding provisions of this Article are without prejudice, in relation to any company appointed to be a relevant undertaker, to the vesting of anything in that company by virtue of—

(a) any transfer scheme under Article 270 or Schedule 1;

(b) the exercise by any relevant undertaker of any power to acquire property by agreement or compulsorily.

(6) In this Article—

• “relevant pipe”—

  (a)

  in relation to a water undertaker, means any water main (including a trunk main), resource main, discharge pipe or service pipe; and

  (b)

  in relation to a sewerage undertaker, means any sewer, lateral drain or disposal main; and

• “water fittings” has the same meaning as in Part IV.

(7) For the purposes of this Article water fittings let on hire by a water undertaker shall be treated as suitably marked for the purposes of this Article if and only if they bear either such a distinguishing metal plate affixed to them or such a distinguishing brand or other mark conspicuously impressed or made on them as sufficiently indicates the undertaker as the actual owner of the fittings.