Survey and Search Wrong - What can I do?

nuttybabe

Hi all

I would be very grateful for a bit of advice. We bought our house in July 2007. It is a lovely house with a good sized garden, ideal for our 3 kids to play in. BUT ever since we moved in the garden has been wet. The bottom half is grass and so boggy we cant mow the lawn and have since fenced off this area as the kids would get stuck down there!! The top half of the garden is partly stones and partly grass. If the kids want to play they have to wear their wellies.

Anyway, last year the MP got involved as it is a problem with a few gardens in the street since they built a housing estate behind. At the meeting with the MP, the council representatives said the builders had taken up the drain at the bottom of our gardens and not replaced it and they had also put down alot of clay to build the new houses on so thought it likely these 2 things were the reason why. But the council have said they will not do anything and the MP says they dont have to. I cant understand why as they have admitted fault.

So after hearing nothing was going to happen I searched through all my house buying stuff and found the water and drainage search which said our surface water gets drained away. There is no drain and hasnt been for around 15 years!!! There is also a disclaimer saying they are not responsible for any wrong informatin. Our survey says there is no surface water. He could not have gone into the garden as there has not been one day that you cannot see how boggy the garden is.

So my question (finally) as the council are refusing to put the drain back in and the surveys are wrong what are my options. Who is liable for the wrong surveys? We dont have any spare money at the moment so I dont think I can afford a solicitor and I am really worried that the house will rot because of it and we will be homeless with 3 small children.

Thanks for any help.

Doozergirl

Surface water hitting the grass wouldn't drain anywhere except through the ground

Would it help if you created a soak away?

nuttybabe

Thanks for the suggestion but whats a soak away? Sorry if I sound dim!

I have been told the problem of the surface water only started after they put a load of clay down to build on plus taking up the drain that was at the bottom of the gardens. The water is running off the estate and ending up in our gardens. The blokes from the council agreed this. The water and drainage search says there is a drain that the surface water goes into. Is this not the case? I know nothing about this only what I have read and heard. Also I just assumed that something had to be wrong or the MP would not be getting involved. Also we have a crawl space under the house which has puddles of water and the neighbours have said theirs was dry until the problem with the water so we are all worried about the state of our houses.

I know the previous owners tried putting down alot of stones and turfing on that so it would drain away but that didnt work either.

Doozergirl

A soak away is a massive hole that you fill with gravel or the like which allows the water to drain into that area rather than waterlog other areas.

Is the search specifically referring to surface drainage at the back? I personally wouldn't expect any kind of surface drainage at the back of my house - not provided by the water company anyhow.

nuttybabe

It says garden surface water so I just assumed it was back garden.

so how big would this hole have to be? Could I do it (and by me I mean dh)?

Doozergirl

H hired a digger for ours. I didn't see it as it was done in a day but I'm told it is a great big hole. He's not here to ask right now (he'd be snoring on the sofa if he were anyway, tbh!)

nuttybabe

Thanks for that. But we would not be able to get a digger in the garden. The bottom of the garden is lower than the top so is more water logged. But there is a wall going along all the gardens so no rear access. One of our neighbours has a pump but they cannot afford it (was recommended by a council guy years ago) and have recently found out it is illegal for them to get rid of the water that they drain away.

poppysarah

Find out exactly which neighbours are also affected and work together.

nuttybabe

We are and our house is not the worst affected. But council are refusing to do anything. We have had 2 meetings with the MP and the council has been present at 1 of them when they admitted blame. About 20 of us turned up. The last meeting was last minute so only 4 houses went as no one else knew about it. But since then we have also found out the estate have problems of flooded gardens as well. We have been told our last hope is contacting papers (this has been done on numerous occasions already) and tv. But there is not much hope. All I want is to know my house will not collapse because of this and it would be nice if the kids could play in garden which is why we bought the house.

RetroBob

Why is it the council's fault? Do they own the land? Did they do the work?

Why did the builder remove the drain? Clearly this is the problem, they should replace it.

nuttybabe

the coucil granted planning permission for the builders (wimpy I think) to building a load of houses. They took up a road and a drain and did not replace the drain. There were problems building so they dumped a huge amount of clay down. The blokes from the council admitted that the drain should have been put back in or additional drainage but the council approved the planning permission for them not to do this. Does that make sense?