Responsibility
A drain serves a single property. A sewer serves more than one property. That distinction determines who pays: drains within your boundary are your responsibility, while sewers and lateral drains are maintained by the regional water and sewerage company.
The definitions come from the Water Industry Act. A pipe that starts as your drain becomes part of a sewer the moment it takes flow from another property.
Since 2011 most shared pipework and all lateral drains transferred into water company ownership, which shifted a large maintenance burden away from homeowners.
If you are unsure which you have, the water company's sewer records plus a CCTV survey with sonde tracing will establish it.
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