Water Act 1989

153 Laying and vesting of pipes etc

(1) Schedule 19 to this Act (which confers powers on the Authority and on water undertakers and sewerage undertakers for the purpose of enabling them to lay pipes and sewers and carry out related works) shall have effect.

(2) Subject to subsection (4) below and to any provision to the contrary contained in an agreement between the Authority or undertaker and the person in whom an interest in the pipe or works is or is to be vested—

(a) every pipe which is a relevant pipe for the purposes of Schedule 19 to this Act and has been laid, in exercise of any power conferred by that Schedule or otherwise, by the Authority or a water undertaker or sewerage undertaker; and

(b) every sewage disposal works constructed by a sewerage undertaker,

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

(3) In addition to the sewers and works which vest in a sewerage undertaker by virtue of subsection (2) above, the following shall also vest in such an undertaker, that is to say—

(a) every sewer or sewage disposal works with respect to which a declaration of vesting made or having effect as if made by that undertaker under Part II of the [1936 c. 49.] Public Health Act 1936 takes effect; and

(b) every sewer which is laid in the area of that undertaker under Part XI of the [1980 c. 66.] Highways Act 1980 (making up private streets) and is not a sewer belonging to a road maintained by a highway authority.

(4) Subsection (2) above shall not apply to a service pipe laid in a street other than the street in which the water main with which it connects is situated and shall not apply to a service pipe laid otherwise than in a street where that pipe is laid—

(a) in pursuance of the duty imposed by virtue of section 42(3)(c) above; or

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

(5) It is hereby declared that anything which, in pursuance of any arrangements under section 73 above, is done on behalf of a sewerage undertaker by a relevant authority within the meaning of that section is, subject to any provision to the contrary contained in any such arrangements, to be treated for the purposes of this section as done by the undertaker.

(6) The preceding provisions of this section are without prejudice to the vesting of anything in the Authority, or in a company appointed to be a water undertaker or sewerage undertaker, in accordance with a scheme under Schedule 2 or 5 to this Act or by virtue of the exercise by the Authority or any such undertaker of any power to acquire property by agreement or compulsorily.