Water & Drainage AND Environmental Searches

chrisrsmith

We are in the process of buying a cottage in Wales that was built at least 100 years ago.
It has private water supply and sewage (cesspit).
The cottage is surrounded by farmland.

What is peoples consideration as to whether either or both of these kinds of Searches are relevant.

The Water & Drainage search appears purely to identify which/where there is any water and sewage connections.

All help greatly appreciated...

G_M

If you are satisfied you know wehere the water comes from and sewerage goes to, forget the searches.

If you are happy about how the land has been used in the past (ie whether the land might be contaminated having been used as a dump, or war-time ammunition storage facility...) then forget the Env search.

Yorkie1

Are you buying with the help of a mortgage? If so, the lender is likely to require certain searches to be carried out.

chrisrsmith

Thanks for the responses - very much appreciated.

The purchase is cash and no mortgage required. Indeed I had noticed that should a mortgage be required then in all probability the searches would have been enforced by the money lender.

One other issue that I have discovered is that the bess pit is outside the property boundary and therefore in the farmers land. I am told there is no issue with him/this and it's been there more decades - since the house was built - at least a 100 years ago. Would this aspect be identified under normal local searches and not have been only identified by a Water/Drainage & Env Search?
I think so but am not an expert and appreciate 'your' views/ideas/knowledge

davidmcn

chrisrsmith wrote: »

One other issue that I have discovered is that the bess pit is outside the property boundary and therefore in the farmers land. I am told there is no issue with him/this and it's been there more decades - since the house was built - at least a 100 years ago. Would this aspect be identified under normal local searches and not have been only identified by a Water/Drainage & Env Search?

Who has told you this? It's more of a title issue rather than something disclosed by searches.

martindow

Is it a cess pit or a septic tank? Septic tanks are excellent but cess pits need a lot of emptying. It is not uncommon for the leach field from a septic tank to be on someone else's land but you need to be sure you have a right to get there in case there is any problem.

Solicitors in rural areas will be used to dealing with these issues. If your solicitor is in a city they might throw their arms up in horror at the weirdness of boreholes and non-mains drainage.

Yorkie1

I think the poster G_M had a similar issue re. the cesspit / septic tank. If I recall rightly, he ensured that everything was formalised - rights of access etc - while relations with the neighbour were good, just in case they ever were not so good and also for clarification in the future.

If he doesn't pop up on this thread, might be worth doing an advanced search for his threads - a few months ago, probably, now.

chrisrsmith

As I stated earlier in the thread it's a 'cesspit'…...

Informed by owner and estate agent.

I have viewed other properties in this part of Wales whereby the cesspit is on adjoining farmland etc.

davidmcn

chrisrsmith wrote: »

Informed by owner and estate agent.

Well, they would say that, wouldn't they...see what your solicitor says once they've seen the titles.

G_M

Yorkie1 wrote: »

I think the poster G_M had a similar issue re. the cesspit / septic tank. If I recall rightly, he ensured that everything was formalised - rights of access etc - while relations with the neighbour were good, just in case they ever were not so good and also for clarification in the future.

If he doesn't pop up on this thread, might be worth doing an advanced search for his threads - a few months ago, probably, now.

well remembered Yorkie.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/51037575#Comment_51037575

chrisrsmith

davidmcn wrote: »

Well, they would say that, wouldn't they...see what your solicitor says once they've seen the titles.

What a strange attitude…..