Sewage Pipes adoption

jamminca69

A friend of mine is looking at a house in a new estate and has been put off it by another friend who had trouble getting a mortgage for a house in the same estate.

They said the problem was that mortgage company did not want to provide funds as the council wont adopt the sewage pipes? Eventually they did get another mortgage but not without hassle.

In my limited knowledge i thought that you can have private sewers which are not adopted and therefore any work etc is done by those who use them. But i havent heard of mortgage companies not accepting applications because of it?

Can anyone advise?

lfc321

On our estate we have unadopted sewers. Was never even mentioned by mortgage co during house buying process. (obviously it showed up in the searches the solicitor did)

angelavdavis

As a point of correction, the sewers are adopted by the water company, however if the roads aren't adopted by the Council, then the sewers underneath are unlikely to have been adopted.

If the developer has been attempting to get the roads adopted, there is a possibility that the sewers are in the process of being adopted. This sewer adoption is known as a Section 104 Agreement. The road adoption is a Section 38 Agreement.

It sounds as though the developer hasn't bothered getting the roads adopted, but I am surprised that a mortgage company would see this as a problem for a new estate :think:

On the negative side, if the developer is attempting to get the roads/sewers adopted as described, it might be that there is a feature in the design that the Local Authority/Water Company aren't happy with in some way (such as non-compliance to standards and regulations) that is causing delays or causing them to not be adopted. This could likely cause an issue if it has been highlighted as part of the searches.

jamminca69

Thanks for info

Would anyone know who would be best person to speak to regarding this? would the estate agent selling be able to advise properly? the developer themselves? or to be sure would they have to get some searches done?

lfc321

angelavdavis wrote: »

As a point of correction, the sewers are adopted by the water company, however if the roads aren't adopted by the Council, then the sewers underneath are unlikely to have been adopted.

The two are not necessarily linked at all. In our case the roads are adopted (by the council) but the sewers are not adopted (by the water co). This dates back to when our estate was built in the early 1970s. The developer of the (posher) estate next to ours paid the water board to adopt the sewers. The (cheapskate) developer of our estate did not. SO they remain private.

That does mean that we are jointly liable with the other houses on the estate for the cost of repairs etc. So far there haven't been any, but its possible that one day we would have to pay out.

phill99

lfc321 is right. The roads can be adopted without the sewers. My parents live on a small estate with that very problem and the residents have to pay for a private company to come out when the sewers block (which seems to happen about once a year)

angelavdavis

As I stated - usually sewers aren't adopted because they don't comply to regulations or standards. Might be why they block so often on that estate?! Who knows!

lfc321

Don't know the position in England (if that's where you are) but I know that here in Wales legislation is on the way through the Assembly which will require Dwr Cymru (our water company) to adopt all existing private sewers. So at that point the unadopted sewer problem will presumably disappear. The last I heard this legislation was due to be brought forward in 2011 with the actual transfer of responsibility taking place some time after that.

Something similar may be going on in England(?) If so this could be a relatively short-term problem.

jamminca69

lfc321 wrote: »

Don't know the position in England (if that's where you are) but I know that here in Wales legislation is on the way through the Assembly which will require Dwr Cymru (our water company) to adopt all existing private sewers. So at that point the unadopted sewer problem will presumably disappear. The last I heard this legislation was due to be brought forward in 2011 with the actual transfer of responsibility taking place some time after that.

Something similar may be going on in England(?) If so this could be a relatively short-term problem.

House is actually in Wales - they meeting with developer tomorrow so showed them info on here and have asked them to ask the developer some questions.

Need to confirm why the mortgage people were unsure to lend money

stevec59

We are buying (or should I say trying to buy!!) a property on a new estate and the roads etc are unadopted, we are only borrowing £25k, but the solicitor handling the mortgage has had to contact the mortgage company (Abbey), to see that they are happy to release the money, the Abeey want to contact the surveyor, so we are waiting to hear, but this all seems a bit silly because we are only borrowing £25k.


Steve