FTB - Surface water does not drain into a public sewer

PixarFan

Hello,

I am a first time buyer and currently nearing exchange. However, my solicitor has informed me there is one issue they cannot solve and it is down to me to instruct what I want to do next. Truth be told, I have no idea! I have shown an experienced friend and they informed me that I should just carry on with the sale. However, I am a little anxious too! If you guys could please look at the query and give me your valuable advice that would be brilliant!

· Our water and drainage search results revealed that the surface water does not drain into a public sewer
· The Sellers have said that they have no information regarding this issue. We must therefore assume that there is no soakaway as otherwise we would have been informed of this.
· As the water does not drain into a public sewer and there is no soakaway we must assume that there is a risk of flooding during heavy rainfall
· Replies to Property Information Form questions state that there has not been any flooding at the property
· The result of the environment search revealed that the property is not at risk of flooding

Is there anything I could do to investigate the situation further?

ChasingtheWelshdream

We got a rebate from the water company on our old house as the rain water didn't drain into a sewer.

(Sorry, that's not much help at all, is it!) :rotfl:

rosyw

Why are they just "assuming" there is no soakaway? I had no idea as to whether there was a soakaway or not when I bought my place, it was only because a large dip appeared in the lawn and one of the people that had built the place called in and said "that'll be due to the soakaway" that I discovered it! I got a very handy rebate from the water company and a lower bill from now on as a result.

How old is the house? if relatively new it may well have a soakaway but the sellers just don't know about it. I wouldn't be too concerned if there's been no flooding.

JP1978

Hmmm, but what IF there is no soak away? What IF there are particularily heavy rains that have certainly plagued us over the last ten years?

Personally, it would either put me off buying the house OR do some further investigations, ie, asking the neighbours on if they have info on soakaways, asking the seller to get more info etc.

How would an insurance company view things if the house was flooded from rainwater? If they paid out on first claim, would they then refuse all subsequent claims if a soakaway was not then installed?

PixarFan

Thanks for the advice so far guys, quite a difficult situation. The house was built in the 1950s.

booksurr

JP1978 wrote: »

Hmmm, but what IF there is no soak away? What IF there are particularily heavy rains that have certainly plagued us over the last ten years?

Personally, it would either put me off buying the house OR do some further investigations, ie, asking the neighbours on if they have info on soakaways, asking the seller to get more info etc.

How would an insurance company view things if the house was flooded from rainwater? If they paid out on first claim, would they then refuse all subsequent claims if a soakaway was not then installed?

what if the moon was made of cheese?

All we know so far is the solicitor is unable to find documentation saying where the rain drains to. has anyone looked at what happens at the end of the downpipes from the gutters?

If they end in a gully then there is a pipe underground going somewhere, so the possibility that the building itself would flood because rainwater was unable to soak away is unlikely. That would mean the ground had to be so saturated, and/or the rain had to be falling so fast, and/or the ground be such a shape, that the rainwater would form a puddle which was higher than the damp proof course so started to penetrate the walls (or even higher so it came in a door).

None of those eventualities would be avoided if the gutter lead to a soakaway, since the land would be saturated and could not take any more, so everything falling on the land around the house would be contributing to the puddle anyway, not just that which fell on the roof.

if Op wants reassurance ask the surveyor to look. The surveyor will then doubtless cover his A by staying you need a drains survey using a CCTV camera to crawl down a pipe and plot where it ends. Both are probably worth paying extra for to give knowledge, but I fail to see how it will lead to flooding in and of itself or why a solicitor is making such a statement other than to cover his A.

G_M

You can do one (or more) of 3 things:

1) run, and find another property
2) exchange, and hope no issues arise
3) investigate further

There are (probobly) 2 ways to investigate further

4) go round and explore. See where the ownpipes go and follow them as far as you can. Then look for manhole covers further off in the direction the pipes point.

If the sellers sre there at the time (ideally) ask them to help

5) pay someone (surveyor) drain company, CCTV company etc) to investigate for you.

The lack of mains drainage in itself is not an issue. In fact as others have said, it can save you money in water charges. It's only an issue if the drains don't direct the water adequately away from the property.

camptownraces

The solicitor is making assumptions he is not qualified to make - assuming that there is no soakaway.

Cheapest thing would be to talk to the neighbours, who would almost certainly say "all the houses round here have soakaways", and have had since 1950.

Alternatively, pay a professional to find the location of the soakaway for you.

[A huge fraction of this country has rainwater drained into soakaways rather than main drains]

davidmcn

Rather baffling advice, especially as a search result which claimed the surface water does drain into the public sewers wouldn't necessarily mean that it does. If you want to know where the water drains to, have a look (or pay someone else to), but I'm sure 99% of buyers don't bother and it's probably not worth worrying about.

jimbog

Any signs of damp on the walls?

silvercar

We had a repeatedly soggy garden in our previous property. The solution was to build a new soak away. Total cost was in the region of £250.