Severn Trent Water must find private pumping stations
Severn Trent Water is asking for customers' help to find up to 4,000 private pumping stations which will soon become the firm's responsibility.
A change in legislation from October 2016 means the water company will own the pumping stations.
Some are as small as a manhole cover, others as big as an outhouse.
A spokesman said: "Customers will know if they have one as they will generally be paying for the electricity and a maintenance contract."
He said: "The pumping stations, which could be in our customers' back gardens or on land adjacent to their homes, help to pump waste from their home to the local sewage treatment works.
"We would like our customers to contact us and tell us if they have one so that we can plan to start maintaining it for them in 2016."
Last year, the water company took ownership of its customers' private drains and sewers.