I own an underground river in the UK. Now what

October 15, 2020 7:20 AM

So I bought a house at auction and there is a culvert underneath with a diverted stream in it, that evidently I OWN at least whilst it’s under my land. How do I insure this and who do I get to inspect it? The council, Environment Agency and the water co have been called and do NOT own it. I know, it’s weird.
posted by The Last Sockpuppet to Law & Government (5 answers total)

You might now be a riparian landowner – "the owner of land that is next to a watercourse or has a watercourse running through or beneath it."

That comes with a responsibility "for the section of the culvert on your property from the moment it enters your property boundary until it leaves."
posted by zeikka at 7:41 AM on October 15, 2020 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Yes I am a riparian land owner. How do I insure this culvert so it doesn’t bankrupt me if it yeets water everywhere?
posted by The Last Sockpuppet at 7:46 AM on October 15, 2020 [3 favorites]

It is probably worth reaching out to your local internal drainage board for information on whether they maintain anything related to it etc. and if they have further information re: insurance.
posted by halcyonday at 8:41 AM on October 15, 2020

Here's the government's guidance on owning a watercourse in England.

From the site: "A watercourse can be a river, brook, beck, ditch, stream, leat, goyle, rhyne, or culvert."

Today I learned the words "leat," "goyle," and "rhyne."

As a newspaper copy editor (I think we're called "subeditors" in the UK), I work with words, and I've been seeing a lot of the same ones over and over again recently, so thank you for enabling me to switch it up a bit.
posted by virago at 9:14 AM on October 15, 2020 [11 favorites]

Assuming it's not a main river, if you speak to your local internal drainage board they should be pretty helpful - generally they're keen on working with landowners to make sure that the watercourses are well managed. It might also be helpful to speak to your neighbours at either end of the watercourse as they can probably tell you who insures then and who carries out any maintenance for them.
posted by plonkee at 2:55 PM on October 15, 2020