foul sewer under house for several houses in street

dnjc

We are in the middle of buying a house and it has come up that a public foul water sewer runs under the house, there is a drain at front and back. Is this common? I guess the drains have to come over to the street at some point in terraced rows but it does make me very nervous. Don't want to be lumbered with subsidence or flooding in future.

Leif

Surely it would only subside if the sewer was constructed completely incompetently. In reality it is just a pipe underground. Similarly flooding is not likely, unless you get flooding in the street from for example a river bursting its banks, in which case sewerage could emerge from the sewer, as happened recently during the floods. I have a public sewer pipe across my property and it is deep down. There will be regs on the depth.

When you say "it has come up" I suspect you bought a Home Buyers Report, and it had a big red symbol next to this item. To be honest a HBR is only fit to be carried down a sewer, after you put it to an appropriate use involving your bottom.

I had a big red symbol in my report against an internal door as the glass was non safety glass. (Yes, I would change it if I had kids.)

dnjc

You are right, it did come up during searches.

I was wondering whether getting a CCTV check was worthwhile, at least just to make sure it has not been leaking?

Probably am being over cautious, but will be my first house, so just trying to make sure.

fannyanna

We are also in the process of buying a property and our searches also revealed a public foul water sewer which runs through the rear garden.

The good news is that we don’t own this so if something goes wrong it’s not us that has to pay for it.

The downside is that if something does go wrong they may need to gain access to it via our property. In our situation this would involve digging up our garden (but this would obviously be put back to how it was before).

The only other consideration for us is if we want to extend the property (which we probably will in the future). We’d need to obtain a build over agreement.

My solicitor assures us that it’s not a problem/uncommon. The current owner has lived in the property for 45 years and he’s never had a problem.

Hope that helps.

fannyanna

Leif wrote: »

I had a big red symbol in my report against an internal door as the glass was non safety glass. (Yes, I would change it if I had kids.)

One of the three red issues highlighted in our survey was the fact that there is a pond in the garden .

Innys

dnjc wrote: »

You are right, it did come up during searches.

I was wondering whether getting a CCTV check was worthwhile, at least just to make sure it has not been leaking?

Probably am being over cautious, but will be my first house, so just trying to make sure.

I'd be more concerned about the sewer blocking up.

It could be that the waste sewers from houses upstream of you, pass under your property and empty into the sewer in the street in front of your house. That was the case for my house.

It's all well and good if there are no blockages. But, when some ignorant git upstream of you decided to chuck fat down the kitchen sink and it solidifies in the sewer, you can, potentially, have problems.

If I were you I'd ask your solictor to get the seller's solicitor to confirm IN WRITING, whether or not there has been an issue with blocked foul water sewers in the past.

If they refuse to do that, I'd walk away. It's a house buyers' market and so you can afford to make sure your back is covered.

dnjc

Innys wrote: »

I'd be more concerned about the sewer blocking up.

It could be that the waste sewers from houses upstream of you, pass under your property and empty into the sewer in the street in front of your house. That was the case for my house.

It's all well and good if there are no blockages. But, when some ignorant git upstream of you decided to chuck fat down the kitchen sink and it solidifies in the sewer, you can, potentially, have problems.

If I were you I'd ask your solictor to get the seller's solicitor to confirm IN WRITING, whether or not there has been an issue with blocked foul water sewers in the past.

If they refuse to do that, I'd walk away. It's a house buyers' market and so you can afford to make sure your back is covered.

Yes, this is exactly the case. Right, I will let solicitor know to do this. Thanks for that!

Innys

dnjc wrote: »

Yes, this is exactly the case. Right, I will let solicitor know to do this. Thanks for that!

Glad to be of help.

Learn from my experience - I ended up having to rod the drains every six months or so - even in the depths winter.

Not a pleasant job, at the best of times and especially galling when you know it's not your fault the sewers keep getting blocked.

mrschaucer

If this really is a public sewer or lateral drain, rest assured you won't be the one rodding it if it blocks. The water companies took over responsibility for all ps's and ld's a while ago - have a look at your local company's website. Just give them a ring and they will send people out to do it for you. But you need to decide whether you want a house with this potential hassle ...

anotherbaldrick

This must be quite an old property, sort of thing was common in Victorian times. I would insist on an independant specialist engineers survey to prove sewer is in sound condition and the seller to pay for it !