Advice Please: Exchange delayed by sewer

Amysdad70

Hi

To cut a long story short, first sale fell through after buyer had mortgage refused. This buyer was all set to exchange today but today his solicitors have raised a query as the local search shows a sewer in the yard somewhere.

My solicitor is off today so exchange is now delayed. Is the sewer a potential deal breaker?

The house is a mid terrace built around 1900 and I wasn't aware of the sewer. My now deceased wife handled all of the purchase as she was a mortgage advisor at the time so this is news to me. Now facing an anxious weekend to find out what happens next week.

The house was originally on the market for £115,000 but I accepted £105,000 as I need to get it sold. The sale will just pay off mortgage and fees and mean that I can finalise the estate. All advice gratefully received.

ST1991

I have no advice, but i am also intrigued as i have a similar situation (buying a house with sewer drains in front garden). If it helps, that didn't put us off the purchase (and we offered above the asking price...)

Richard_Webster

Thousands of 100+ year old terraces have sewers in the back garden. That in itself is no big deal - so there must be more to it than that or the buyer's solicitor is stupid.

OP should ask for more clarification of what the buyer's solicitor's concern really is.

Amysdad70

Thank you. That's reassuring. My solicitor will address it in Monday and hopefully it won't delay things much more.

My solicitor's secretary did say that the buyers solicitors seem to be using a standard client management tool that fires off generic letters. When they raise a query that isn't covered it takes them an age to respond.

Hoploz

Oh dear, sorry you're having this extra worry.

I'm sure it'll be fine, it's very common. Not sure what the query is. Either there is a sewer or there isn't. There may be a manhole. So what!

ElsieMonkey

I'm in the process of purchasing a house where the manhole is located in next doors back garden. It's a terraced victorian property and apparently this is very common. As a buyer I just raised enquiries about who has responsibility to maintain it (water company), is it easily accessible (i.e. not paved over) etc. Hopefully it's just something like this and easily dealt with! Wonder why they are raising this so late on though?

Amysdad70

It turned out that the sewer was made a public access sewer in 2011. As the house was built before this date, (circa 1900), we didn't need to do anything. The buyer was using a large conveyancing house which didn't seem to understand the legislation so my solicitor had to call and explain it to them in simple terms.

This has now been accepted and we completed today.