Help! House Purchase – Water Main, Lost Deeds, No PP/BC …

Davesnave

quantumlobster wrote: »

Yes, you were lucky.

It's not prejudice: no-one who didn't know roughly where the water was beforehand has ever been able to do better than chance at detecting it, when subjected to scientific controls.

If you can detect water with your dowsing rods, give James Randi a call. There's a million bucks with your name on it, if you can prove it.

I would say it's prejudice if I can do something and someone else insists I can't, but it's no biggie. If you want to deny it's possible, fine. I thought it was a common enough thing.

I've no particular skill in dowsing, no background knowledge about it, and I first tried only when someone else suggested it. I didn't expect it to work either.

I found locating the 150mm main easy enough, as is detecting high power electricity cables, but something like a single buried 20mm pipe is tricky and springs on our land are impossible to pin down. It's also hard to do when in the wrong frame of mind, so if it isn't happening, I stop.

Anyway, I imagine the OP, can research other ways to check.

I was shocked at how shallowly the plastic pipe was buried, considering the field could be ploughed at any time and an entire village depends on it.

pinklady21

Intrigued about your Dowsing - what kind of a rod did you use?
Our new (to us) victorian farmhouse is in the middle of a field and we are not sure where the mains water pipe has been laid. Might be a job for Dowsing. How would you suggest we go about it?

Davesnave

pinklady21 wrote: »

Intrigued about your Dowsing - what kind of a rod did you use?

Two pieces of thick galvanised wire bent to a right angle and held loosely, thumbs upwards in front of me. I have them parallel, pointing forwards, about 20-25cm apart.

When they both swing inwards and usually cross, I've found something....maybe. I repeat walking to the spot several times to check if a reaction is consistent. It may not be.

There are other ways, such as using hazel twigs, but I've never done that, or encountered the sort of violent reaction some people claim.

I'd stress it's not something I've done a lot of or gone into deeply. When a friend suggested it, I thought, "She's bonkers, but I'll have a go." I was surprised it worked, as I'd always thought it needed some kind of special skill.


I'm not convinced about the dowsing that's done by swinging a pendulum over a map and that sort of thing, but that's beyond my very limited experience anyway.

quantumlobster

Davesnave wrote: »

I would say it's prejudice if I can do something and someone else insists I can't, but it's no biggie. If you want to deny it's possible, fine. I thought it was a common enough thing.

Oh, people claiming that it's a thing is common enough. Every time they're tested, though, they fail.

Every. Single. Time.

There is not one single instance of someone, working under scientific conditions, where anyone has ever displayed the ability (beyond that which could be ascribed to chance) to locate anything (water, metal, whatever) using dowsing/divining rods.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dowsing#Studies

And your saying "I did it, therefore proof" - well, what's more likely? That you have some hitherto-unknown-to-science ability to remotely detect things using magic bits of wire/twigs (in which case, go get yourself a nobel prize), or that the ideomotor effect (a well known and understood phenomenon) is in play?

Spoiler alert: it's the latter.

Anyway, we're derailing the thread, so I'll leave it there.

Davesnave

quantumlobster wrote: »

Anyway, we're derailing the thread, so I'll leave it there.

You could have tried not starting it, I suppose.

martindow

Davesnave wrote: »

Out came the divining rods....

I bought a house which had a private water supply. The company sent a man with divining rods and he walked around the land to decide where they should drill the bore hole. Who knows whether it made any difference but if professionals believe it works...

Davesnave

martindow wrote: »

Who knows whether it made any difference but if professionals believe it works...

That's what I understood too, but hey-ho.

I own a metal detector, but I didn't think it would go deep enough or register a plastic pipe, so I was willing to give a couple of rods a go. After all, two bits of galvanised wire were hardly a major investment of time and money!

Rogue_G

Haha, never mind water dowsing, let's stick to the house discussions!

UPDATE: The seller has now finally accepted that they've broken the legal-deed by building double-garage. They're suggesting that we carry on with the sale, the solicitors hold onto £30k as a retainer (the value of the double-garage), they pay the water board to move the pipe, and then they would get the £30k retainer.

How long would it take to get the water board to move the pipe? Does anybody have any ideas how much it would cost? (I'm guessing around £10k). In this instance, the water main would have to be moved to the road which is in front of the house. While this work went on, access to the house would be impossible.

The seller continues to insist has the second floor of the double-garage, which does not have planning permission or building control approval, is perfectly fine. The seller also continues to insist that the render on the house, which the surveyor and 2 different builders have said is totally shot and needs re-doing, in perfectly fine.

davidmcn

Why don't they just get the pipe moved, and then complete the sale? Retentions are a pain, and it might not be an acceptable solution for your lender (if you are buying with a mortgage).

Rogue_G

UPDATE: Well, after building a garage over a water main without permission, not getting PP or BC approval for the 2nd floor rooms, most of the render on the gable end and back of the house about to fall off (£20k to put right) ... .... the seller has offered to knock £5k off the price!!

At this point, we'll tell them where to get off.

Turns out they've been to the water board before (anonymously probably) for a pipe re-routing quote. We're pretty annoyed because the seller has known from the start that all these things were wrong with the house, yet proceeded to let us spend over £2k on surveys/inspections etc. Through the process they have also lied to both us and our solicitor about the garage building and everything that was wrong with it.

I can't believe how some people conduct themselves. Really, really hope it takes them years to sell their house. Cowboys.