Drainage search - manhole appears to be below the property

thphilpott

Hello

I am in the process of purchasing a new house.

The house has planning permission approved for a small rear extension. The solicitors advised that I would also need permission from the water/sewerage company as the extension would run over an existing sewerage drain.

When I phoned Thames Water about this, they advised that this should not be a problem as long as there is 0.5metres of space between the sewer and the foundations, and that I'd need 3 weeks or so to get official permission should I proceed with the extension, which is fine. However, they flagged a larger potential problem which is that the plan indicates that a manhole somehow appears to be within what used to be the garage (and is now habitable space). The informed me that should I proceed with the extension, I would have to have the manhole moved at my own cost and probably have the sewer rerouted.

As I don't have many posts, unfortunately the forum isn't allowing me to attach a photo of the plan or link to a hosted image online but I'll reply to some other posts (helpfully!) and hopefully it will allow me to do so soon.

The house was built in the ca 1938 and the detached linked rear/side garage was converted in ca 2003 according to the homebuyers' survey. I believe it is the 2003 work that potentially caused the problem.

This seems strange that this would not have been dealt with when the former garage was converted.

Could it be a mistake on the plan? Or is it conceivable that the builders took a short cut and built over the manhole?

Thanks for any thoughts/assistance/help you can provide. I've asked the solicitors to also enquire via the vendors.

AdrianC

It's entirely possible that there's a manhole within the garage, yes.

What's the flooring in the converted garage? Is there anything visible, or "feelable" under carpet?

Doozergirl

It used to be perfectly acceptable to build over inspection chambers. It isn't now.

The drains on a house built after 1936 would have been private and the responsibility of the homeowner, until 2011 when all shared drains were adopted by the water companies.

thphilpott

AdrianC wrote: »

It's entirely possible that there's a manhole within the garage, yes.

What's the flooring in the converted garage? Is there anything visible, or "feelable" under carpet?

Thanks for this.

The area shown on the plan as having the manhole is tiled, as far as I recollect, which may well cover up any issues. Nothing was visible when we last viewed it and the surveyor didn't flag it as a potential concern. But as it's tiled, it probably wouldn't be visible or "feelable".

AdrianC

Tiled could be good. Tiled may well mean that the cover has been swapped for a proper internal-spec sealed one, which has been tiled over properly.

Done well, they can be hard to spot at a glance.


Or some hideous bodger may just have tiled over it blithely, of course...

thphilpott

Doozergirl wrote: »

It used to be perfectly acceptable to build over inspection chambers. It isn't now.

The drains on a house built after 1936 would have been private and the responsibility of the homeowner, until 2011 when all shared drains were adopted by the water companies.

Good to know. Which might explain this.

thphilpott

AdrianC wrote: »

Tiled could be good. Tiled may well mean that the cover has been swapped for a proper internal-spec sealed one, which has been tiled over properly.

Done well, they can be hard to spot at a glance.

Or some hideous bodger may just have tiled over it blithely, of course...

Possibly. I didn't clock it when I viewed the house but it might be done quite subtly. I think it's probably worth having another viewing in any case so I'll take a look then.

The gentleman from Thames Water, who seemed clued up, said that they wouldn't permit an internal inspection nowadays - I presume as they might require access without contacting us, in theory.

My wife has just reviewed the surveyor's photos and she noticed that an inspection chamber exists on the driveway in front of the garage - probably about 2 metres away from the manhole indicated on the plan. Would that be in addition to the manhole shown on the plan, do you think?

AdrianC

Could well be an addition. Or it may have been moved. There's really only one way you're going to find out.

Bless_you

So did the gov't deem every house in the UK with internal drain unsellable when they changed the regs?

Or do sellers just hope the buyers solictor is useless ( most are) and sell it as seen.

DCFC79

Bless_you wrote: »

So did the gov't deem every house in the UK with internal drain unsellable when they changed the regs?

Or do sellers just hope the buyers solictor is useless ( most are) and sell it as seen.

The thread is from August, you really could have just linked to the thread rather than dragging it up.