Sewer in back garden instead of front road

Jackie235

I purchased a new build house in 06 from a major PLC builder, then june 07 we recieved a letter from the housing co stating there was a un-adopted sewer in the passing through the center of the garden, and the 3 other houses in our row. this was news to us as we had no prior knowlege of the sewer from searches performed by the solicitor. The letter said they were going to appoint a solcitor for us who would guide us with the signing of a 'deed of grant of easement' this would then allow the local SU to adopt the sewer at public expense.

All well and good until you read it and realise that you can not build with in 3 meters of a main public sewer - our garden is 8 meters in length from our patio door to our fence which the sewer is 4 meters away from the house. We were concerned that we would not be able to add a conservatory/extension to the property and decined to sign the deed.

Since then there have been numerous letters back and forth via our appointed solicitor and direct from the building co's solcitor and from the building co with one letter saying the were going to take legal action to make us sign the deed. they pointed out a clause in our orgional trasfer agreement when we bought the house stating 'you agree to sign any easement grants placed before you'. An unfair term surly?

Retrieveing all my documentation from the solicitor that dealt with my purchase i found the following - there is already an easment in place for the road infront of my house (land which i own) to allow access for sewers etc.

So more digging I found the planning application for the estate - one document was a request for a 'minor amendment' to the plans in which they asked to remove a 'redundant road' from the rear of my house
then the penny dropped as to why the sewer is acutally there!! the minor amendment plan showed the layout as they wanted it to be but they removed all signs of the sewers on the layout plan. the council passed it as a minor amendment and the houses were built!

So our land regisrty doc says the sewer should be in the front street and we have ended up with a house that has one meter of garden with nowhere to build - the sewer now shows up on a CON29DW which we would have to enclose in a HIP pack should we sell the house so a prospective buyer would see it and say, not buying that i can extend - we never got the chance to say that, when we bought the house we had a pic of plots and we chose the house due to the nice garden with the room to build on - from what i can see they have contravened planning and the secretary of states protocol on building sewers- please give me an indication where to go with this as no one seems to have heard anything like it!!!

Fire_Fox

What does your conveyancing solicitor have to say?

Jackie235

Hi, I have my full file from my conveyancor and included is the water and drainage search, there are no sewer pipe shown with in the boundry of the property, I also asked them what information they were given by the PLC builder and they were adamant that they were told there were no sewer pipes in the property boundry. (they would not have shown on the plan as the builder had reomved them to achieve a minor amendment).

ALSO i forgot to mention we also have a Surface water sewer running through the garden nearer to the house (the Builder has not pointed this out to me yet lol)

Jackie235

Oh ALSO - they have recently sent a letter saying ' to conclude this situation we are willing to pay £500 towards the cost of reinstating your garden should the SU ever need to dig it up' all well and good for me as i only have grass - my neighbour next door has spent thousands on patio etc.


PS None of the seven houses that are affected by this in my row/street conveyancing solicitors knew anything about the sewer or pick up on it as the land registry information said it would be located at the front in the road!!!

crusty_toenail

This is a mad situation to be in! It will be up to the builders to move the sewer from your backyard and all the homeowners involved should get compensated. The builders should be brought to court and fined.

Also, this is a large building firm, so I would get the media, local councillors etc involved!

I would be fuming if this happened to me.

My friend once bought a house and the searches showed that the conservatory in the back garden had been built on top of a sewer and the owners never knew, it caused so many complications for the vendor to sell!

Debt_Free_Chick

Jackie235 wrote: »

from what i can see they have contravened planning and the secretary of states protocol on building sewers- please give me an indication where to go with this as no one seems to have heard anything like it!!!

I'm fairly sure that a contravention of planning law has no immediate impact on you i.e. even if they did break planning law, that doesn't give you any redress, automatically.

You will need to take action privately against the builder on the basis that (a) the property is not what was described and (b) possible (?) reduction in value due to the inability to extend.

You need to take advice on this. As Fire Fox suggests, the solicitor that did the original conveyancing would be a good place to start.

Jackie235

The Transfer deed contains a clause saying " you will agree to sign on presentation any utility easements" or wording to that effect. They are saying we should sign the easement because we agreed at purchase by signing the transfer deed.... how can you agree to something you have no prior knowlege of?

My points about the planning and the sec of states protocol are things that the builders should surely have follwed, my thoughts were if i pointed out this to them then they would be more forth coming with compensation! Yeah thats what im after really, i dont think its fair that they have not disclosed this information prior to me buying the house. I feel that when i come to sell the house it will be pointed out that there is a Public Sewer with a man hole cover in my garden serving over 40 houses up stream.
For example, If they came now wanting to build more houses next to mine and the only access to the main public sewer was via my garden, they would have to make me an offer for my land wouldn't they??

Richard_Webster

It is very common indeed for there to be private sewers serving a number of houses running through back gardens. Usually builders include standard form easements for such sewers to go through other plots on the estate to serve your plot and through your plot to serve others and buyers' solicitors rarely get information as to where these sewers are.

(A sewer by definition is a pipe that takes drainage form more than one property. It does not have to be maintained by the local drainage company. Builders enter into agreements so that the larger pipes do get taken over - but they do not have to do so.)

The unusual point here is that you were not told that there was an adoptable sewer (one subject to an agreement between the builder and the drainage company). What is not unusual at all is the existence of a sewer of any kind through the back gardens.

Jackie235

What would be your advice in this matter Richard? Ta Jackie

lincroft1710

With only 8m depth of garden any extension/conservatory will make an already small plot even smaller. Not every intending purchaser would want to extend and it would be a brave person who could quantify the difference in value between two identical houses, one which could be extended, on which couldn't.

I don't know how "main" the sewer is, but you can certainly build over some sewers. My kitchen is in an extension over sewer and has inspection cover - all with current building regs appro.

Jackie235

I don't know how "main" the sewer is, but you can certainly build over some sewers. My kitchen is in an extension over sewer and has inspection cover - all with current building regs appro.

Hi, its a main public sewer serving over 40 houses so the deed i would have to sign states that you can not build with in 3 meters of it.

A 3 meter conservatory in an 8 meter garden would not be oversized in my opinion,

An identical house two streets away (without a public sewer in the rear garden - their sewer is in the front street where it should be) is for sale - a buyer would favor the other house to mine due to being able to errect a conservatory if you get what i mean?