Man holes in garden

renfirsttimebuy

Hi all...
I went to view the property I'm buying again. We are at very early stage. 
I spotted 3 small Man holes in the garden....they are in a line. 
I want to extend the kitchen....does this mean I can't? How do i find out if the man holes belongs to the house or council? 
Any advice? 
Agggh.....feeling deflated!!!

SpiderLegs

Have you considered asking the men? I would certainly do that before poking around in them.

A neighbour once wanted to check my man hole, I said fifty quid and it’s all yours mate.

easiest fifty quid I ever made.

Mutton_Geoff

SpiderLegs said:

Have you considered asking the men? I would certainly do that because poking around in them.

A neighbour once wanted to check my man hole, I said fifty quid and it’s all yours mate.

easiest fifty quid I ever made.

This happened to me in the past. I suggested £10 would make their day. They said if they offered £50, it would make my whole week.

xylophone

https://www.unitedutilities.com/faq/water-sewer-issues/who-is-responsible-for-the-manhole-in-my-garden/

renfirsttimebuy

So there are 3....2 tiny ones that say rodding eye. One that says inspection chamber. That is slightly bigger but not bug enough for a person. What are your thoughts? If i can't extend I will pull out of the house. 

davidmcn

Irrespective of whether you have inspection chambers, the house is obviously going to have pipes (and other services) going to and from it, so you may have to work around or divert something. The solicitors will in due course advise whether there are any third parties with an interest in pipes etc, though usually not, in which case it's up to you whether and how you move your drains.

thearchitect

It sounds like it's the foul drain for the house.  You may therefore have to divert them if you wish to build over but whether that is practicable requires site inspection/assessment and, as DavidMcN says, checking whether there is any third party interest.

renfirsttimebuy

Hi all..So I've read the water Thames 'building over a public sewers' 

So it is not a manhole (man hole is literally a person can go inside - erm how stupid of me! Lol) 

So to be clear it is a inspection chamber and 2 rodding eye. So i am thinking I could do an extension. I will need to do a build agreement and then plan to move the inspection chamber. 

Maybe there is hope. What do you think?

Davesnave

You won't need a build-over agreement if it's just your sewer pipe, but you will if it has others feeding into it 'upstream' of you; then it will be owned by the water authority.

Moving an inspection chamber so it's not inside a building is usually easy enough, provided there's room. If I can do it, it can't be that hard. I like drains; they're just like children's construction kits these days, but a bit bigger.

oldbikebloke

renfirsttimebuy said:

Hi all..So I've read the water Thames 'building over a public sewers' 
So it is not a manhole (man hole is literally a person can go inside - erm how stupid of me! Lol) 
So to be clear it is a inspection chamber and 2 rodding eye. So i am thinking I could do an extension. I will need to do a build agreement and then plan to move the inspection chamber. 
Maybe there is hope. What do you think?

a rodding eye is just a means to get a drain rod into a drain to clean it. It may be positioned where the is a change in direction of the drain - obviously rods cannot go round big corners, but it won't be at a junction of 3 or more pipes. An inspection chamber will be the junction of 3 or more pipes, the question is whose is the second pipe, yours or your neighbour's?

If all pipes are yours, it is not a public sewer, and you won't need Thames Water's permission. You will obviously need to adhere to building regs though when it comes to extending pipes or relaying their direction.

renfirsttimebuy

@Davesnave @oldbikebloke
Thank you both. Just what I needed to hear. 
First time buyer here....no idea on building or didn't even know what a manhole was. Had never heard of rodding eye or even an inspection chamber. Made me terrified! But everyone on here are being so helpful. I got this!