The Water and Sewerage Services (Northern Ireland) Order 2006

Agreements to adopt sewer, drain or waste water treatment works at future date

161.—(1) Subject to paragraph (7) and Article 206(3), a sewerage undertaker may agree with—

(a) any person constructing or proposing to construct—

(i) any sewer;

(ii) any drain which is intended to communicate with a public sewer vested in that undertaker; or

(iii) any waste water treatment works; or

(b) any person at whose expense the undertaker is, by virtue of an agreement under Article 221, to carry out work in connection with the construction of such a drain or sewer,

that, if the sewer, drain or waste water treatment works is or are constructed in accordance with the terms of the agreement, the undertaker will, upon completion of the work, at some specified date or on the happening of some future event, declare the sewer or such part of the drain as constitutes the lateral drain or the works (as the case may be) to be vested in that undertaker.

(2) A person mentioned in sub-paragraph (a) or (b) of paragraph (1) may make an application to a sewerage undertaker requesting the undertaker to make an agreement under this Article.

(3) An application under paragraph (2) shall be accompanied and supplemented by all such information as the undertaker may reasonably require; but, subject to paragraph (4) and without prejudice to the effect (if any) of any other contravention of the requirements of this Article in relation to such an application, a failure to provide information in pursuance of the obligation to supplement such an application shall not invalidate the application.

(4) Where—

(a) a person who has made an application to a sewerage undertaker under paragraph (2) has failed to comply with his obligation under this Article to supplement that application with information required by the undertaker; and

(b) that requirement was made by the undertaker at such a time before the end of the period within which the undertaker is required, by virtue of Article 162, to respond to the application as gave that person a reasonable opportunity to provide the required information within that period,

the undertaker may delay its response to the application until a reasonable time after the required information is provided.

(5) Any agreement made under this Article by a sewerage undertaker shall be enforceable against the undertaker by the owner or occupier for the time being of any premises served by the sewer, lateral drain or works to which it relates.

(6) Without limiting the terms which may be included in an agreement under this Article—

(a) such terms may include terms as to the provision of such security as the undertaker may reasonably require for the discharge of any obligations imposed on the other party to the agreement; and

(b) such terms relating to a drain may include in particular —

(i) identification of that part of the drain which constitutes the lateral drain for the purposes of the agreement and, in particular, the point or points of connection between that part and the remainder of the drain;

(ii) a requirement for the installation of an inspection chamber, at the expense of the person with whom the sewerage undertaker is to make the agreement, at a place specified in the agreement;

(iii) provision, if the inspection chamber is constructed in accordance with the terms of the agreement, for the undertaker to declare that the inspection chamber be vested in the undertaker at the same time as the lateral drain; and

(iv) provision for the lateral drain, once vested in the undertaker, to communicate with a public sewer at the place or places specified in the agreement.

(7) A sewerage undertaker shall not make an agreement under this Article with respect to—

(a) a sewer, drain or waste water treatment works situated within the area of another sewerage undertaker; or

(b) a drain which is intended to communicate with a sewer which—

(i) is so situated; or

(ii) is vested in another sewerage undertaker,

until one of the conditions mentioned in paragraph (8) is satisfied.

(8) The conditions are—

(a) that the other undertaker has consented to the making of the agreement; or

(b) that the Department, on an application made to it, has dispensed with the necessity for such consent, either unconditionally or subject to such conditions as it may consider fit to impose.