assumed abandoned sewer / foul drain

puddingisagoldfish

I have been looking to buy for several months - I sold my property and am a cash buyer (which is great - but...without the shoulder of a mortgage company to say yay or nay about things that may be refused a mortgage it feels like a worry)
The house prices have gone up in that time and I have had an offer accepted on a house which was marketed at £399k for £370 which is more than I would have liked but I am getting very tired from a huge drive each day and need to get this sorted (long story!) and to be honest didn't think the offer would be snapped up by the very eager to move sellers (I may have been a little co-erced by the agent)
The house had a buyer. Buyer pulled out over concerns about sewer. Sewer is now to be marked on plans as 'assumed abandoned' My solicitor hasn't heard of this before and says if the survey says it looks okay above ground to go with that if I'm not going to worry. But I'm thinking if Thames Water say they have abandoned it presumably they wont maintain and it could be a problem in the future. I'm mainly worried about it coming up when I sell and a mortgage company refusing to back a buyer over this. Does anyone have any experience or wise words? If I needed a mortgage the mortgage company would say how they felt about it and they'd either offer the loan or not.
I'm finding this very stressful and feel rushed (they have found another property (on the same day as I offered!) and want to exchange by 20 December)
Thank you

Rovver125

I work as a surveyor in the SWW area & in my experience a sewer will never be marked as 'assumed' abandoned. It either is abandoned or it isn't!

Usually, if a sewer is to be abandoned, which will usually be due to it being diverted for building works etc, it will have to be investigated & surveyed first to ensure that any live connections to it are picked up & re-routed to join the new sewer.

Obviously capping an 'assumed' abandoned sewer off could lead to serious flooding if there are still any live connections & 100% certainty is required before abandoning any sewer.

In my experience, once diverted, the abandoned section is usually pumped full of concrete or sometimes excavated & removed.

Is it definitely a public sewer? I find it hard to believe any water company would mark assumed abandoned on their sewerage infrastructure plans!

Edit: If Thames Water are digging their heels in & won't commit to saying for sure if this sewer is abandoned or not & it's impact on the sale of the house concerns you, possibly consider commissioning a private drainage contractor to survey it & produce a report confirming it's abandoned?

puddingisagoldfish

Thank you for your reply.
I think there were two sets of plans, and the sewer was diverted thirty years go - it showed up on one set as abandoned, this set was with the council from a developer building adjacent to the property - I must admit calling it assumed abandoned seems very wishy washy. As it was diverted I assume it is abandoned as I can only assume Thames water would know if it was active. I think I'm worried who would be responsible if it was still there and caused a problem - have Thames Water absolved themselves of liability by saying that?
Thank you for the suggestion about a drainage contractor - that would be a very good idea.
Thanks again

Rovver125

Have you actually spoken to Thames Water about it direct or has it all been through the solicitor? Probably be worth some enquiries direct to them yourself. Whilst councils used to hold responsibility for a lot more drainage infrastructure years ago, most are now the responsibility of the water companies. Plans were often passed across, with no guarantee they were accurate or had ever been investigated.

All utility drawings/maps usually include a disclaimer along the lines of 'this drawing is accurate to the best of our knowledge, but no responsibility can be accepted for errors or omissions' or something along those lines, basically saying, our plans say this, but it doesn't mean they're right!

The word 'assumed' is widely used in all types of surveying, I use it often, although only if it is not feasible to prove something beyond reasonable doubt there & then, which it often isn't for numerous reasons. Assumed does cover oneself to a certain extent as it is basically a way of saying that something would need further investigation to prove.

Just because they use the term though does not absolve them of responsibility, if it was found to be live & definitely a public sewer & not a private drain, then they are responsible for it & any maintenance that may be required.

If the diversion happened 30 years ago, chances are it has been abandoned, but if it hasn't been capped off or excavated, the only way to be certain is to have a drainage survey done.

I would speak to Thames Water first off & see what they say, before you incur any cost yourself. A survey organised by yourself would typically cost in the region of £150-200 in my area, although do your homework before you hire anyone, because like most other trades, there are some cowboys out there!

Best of luck with it

puddingisagoldfish

I have had the briefest of email conversations with Thames Water - as the house seller wants to proceed so quickly I wanted to try to find out as much as I could, they said they wont be able to reply in more detail for another 5 - 10 days. I will email them again now. Perhaps my surveyor could recommend a drainage contractor - I think having that done does sound worthwhile. But yes I will wait to hear properly from Thames Water.
Thank you for your help - I really appreciate it.
Best wishes