Thames Water drain surveys

[Sonners]

Just thought I'd let people know that if you have a knock on the door from contractors purporting to be working on behalf of Thames Water and doing drain CCTV surveys in back gardens then they are legit in SE22 (and the lady said SE15) - I've checked with Thames Water. The contractors are MGJV.

I realised that I'd been a bit stupid telling a stranger my availability for the week without checking first! Although there have been big trucks doing drain surveys on the manhole covers in my road over the last few weeks so it wasn't overly suspicious...

If you want to double check for your road before giving out info on your whereabouts then you can call Thames Water on 0845 9200 888.

[Penguin68]

Thames Water did write to people warning this might happen - now that they have responsibility for (most) drainage in private land they are surveying to see what they have been obliged to take-on. Many tenements have drains access (i.e covers) on their land rather than on the footpath, hence the need for access. Some of the drain covers are at the back of houses (and some houses share drains before they exit into the main drainage system in the street).

[sedm]

This happened to me too. I didn't get the letter because I had recently moved into my property, but let them in & then kicked myself - but checked with Thames Water and found out they were legit.

[Callie]

Woke up the other morning to someone trapsing around on the gravel in my tiny front garden. I peeped through the window to see van called CCTV & Drain Specialist & a guy - he'd opened the ?drain cover & was pointing a big hose thingy camera? down it. He hadn't knocked on my door or anything - bit of a cheek I thought. After a while he knocked on the door but when I opened it he rudely just turned round to his mate in the van & shouted 'we've got access!!'. Um, no I don't think so - 'no you haven't!' I replied. I was a bit pissed off to say the least. I told them I was just on my way out to work. The guy in the van said he could see a blockage on his camera & that they would try & flush it out via the front & may not require access to the back garden for this. He said if they couldn't clear the blockage from the front, he would leave a note in my door to let me know so I could arrange another time for them to come back but when I got home from work there was no note so I'm hoping all's good.

[nunhead_man]

Yeah - they have been here too -ours is the only house in our row with a manhole at the back so we were popular. Guys friendly and happy with a cup of tea