Public sewer across garden?

milliebear00001

Hi there

Exactly as title says really. Just downloaded the Land Registry gubbins for the house I am trying to buy. The plans show a public sewer running across the back garden of the property. Do I need to be concerned about this? What would happen in the event of works needing to be done to the sewer? I am not sure exactly where in the garden the sewer lies, but it looks like it could be under a tarmaced area which used to be a public road (now part of the property's land).

deano72_2

i would ask your local water board or who ever deals with the sewers.i have the two neighbours sewage goin across my drive & there sewage meets the man hole in my drive,it bacame blocked,phoned them up they came out with in the hr & unblocked it free of charge as it classed as shared sewer.might be different in your case so give them a bell

no1catman

Via your 'searches' get the Water Co., to check the plans - this might mean an on-site survey. Or it may entail them checking more historical plans and cross-checking.
Pipes have got to go somewhere, if it is under the garden that's one thing, but you don't want it going under the house!

milliebear00001

There doesn't seem to be an access point for the sewer in my garden. I am not concerned about it being there, but wonder what would happen if they had to get access to it. Would they need to dig up the tarmac!!!? Am I in any way legally liable for any of the maintenance or works in that scenario?

sonastin

If its a public sewer, the water authority are responsible for any maintenance that might need doing, and they have an obligation to make good any damage they do to your property in carrying out that maintenance. For a lot of the work that might need to be done on the sewer, they can probably access it from the nearest manhole but occasionally the problem could be serious enough to need digging up. You should be compensated for the work being done if that happens.

However, if it only serves your property, you will be responsible for maintaining it up until it joins the main sewer.

PasturesNew

The main things to think about are:
- you can't build over it or within X feet of it
- if you ever decide that it's a pain in the butt and needs moving, it'll probably cost you £15-25k to move it.

milliebear00001

PasturesNew wrote: »

The main things to think about are:
- you can't build over it or within X feet of it
- if you ever decide that it's a pain in the butt and needs moving, it'll probably cost you £15-25k to move it.

Thank you. I don't think either of those things are ever likely to be an issue.

Slinky

You CAN build right up to it, but only with the water company's permission, and subject to a 'build over' agreement. We had to sign one of these when we built our extension, and a man came out from the water company to check what our builders were doing before the concrete for the footings was poured. The main sewer for the street is about 6 inches away from the footings of our building and we had to go down really deep so the footings are below the level of the sewer and not putting pressure on it. In theory if the water company needed to do work they could knock our wall down, in practice there's enough room for them to do whatever needed to be done without it affecting our extension. We'd rather it wasn't there of course, but the only reason we had the land to be able to extend onto in the first place was because the original builders left a large gap between our house and the one next door to run the sewer through.

timmyt

milliebear00001 wrote: »

Hi there

Exactly as title says really. Just downloaded the Land Registry gubbins for the house I am trying to buy. The plans show a public sewer running across the back garden of the property. Do I need to be concerned about this? What would happen in the event of works needing to be done to the sewer? I am not sure exactly where in the garden the sewer lies, but it looks like it could be under a tarmaced area which used to be a public road (now part of the property's land).

rare for land reg plan to reveal pipes.

but assuming it is where you say, then yes, access may be needed if it gets blocked or damaged.

if it is a mains sewer then cannot build over without company's conmsent, or if water mains cannot at all - massively dangerous to do so, as water mains have the same pressure as usa fire hydrants