Buildover Insurance required?

Dan-Dan

Morning

We are about to exchange on a house , that has a lean to attached , which according to my surveyor , and we knew anyway , is in a right old state , needs to come down , built up from flagstones and leaking at the flashing point etc , we knew it would have to go so not a problem

Other house in the row have their version of ours up , but newer constructions , all no more than 3m out from the house etc , there MAY be lateral drains under everybodys conservatories , or they may run further down the gardens , but because they were adopted in 2011 there is no way for anyone (including the water company ) to know exactly where they do run , just that by general consenus they do run along somewhere underneath everyones gardens

The searches result does not pinpoint exact postion , obviously the water companys want to recoup any monies they have to sepnd on now adopted drainiage systems and so the dreaded build over insurance was mentioned by my solicitor

The existing structure has dated 3 vendors and the replacment structure we intend to replace it with would sit on the same spot , albeit with foundations , am i best to ask for permission from the water company , see if i can convince them that its exisiting footprint etc , or will they see the chance for an easy £350+ and tell me i must have build over?

Any opnions welcome

cheers

dyrniboy

Hi,

When you apply for planning permission to take down and build new extension your architect should supply a set of drawings to the water company. They should then make their views known.Having gone through this myself last year i can tell you they will want you to apply for a build over agreement and should you need to make a new connection into the drain they will want a connection fee and also they will want an approved contractor to carry out the work. Believe me the costs will go up !. Cheapest price we had from an approved contractor was £1800 to make a new connection !