Buying a house with manhole under the dining room extension

April995

Hi all, we are a young couple looking to purchase our first home together. We have found the perfect home in the most ideal location (just down the road from both of our parent's houses) and we would love to purchase it, however, there is one thing holding us back. Upon viewing the house we loved it, but we were informed that there is a manhole under the dining room extension. The current owner said he didn't know about it when he purchased the house 8 years ago, and he's had no issues with it. 
He showed us the manhole hidden under a rug, and it is very obvious and can still be opened as the flooring has been added in a way that the manhole is still openable. 
There are a few things we are worried about:
- The possibility of any smell
- The possibility of flooding and if house insurance would cover this
- Any damage should someone need to access it
- And if it's going to cause us issues when we look to eventually sell the house in the future. 

We have tried to look up the cost of moving it, but it looks like this can be anything from £1500 - £7500, and as a young couple we just do not have that sort of money. A loan for £7500 would be really hard for us to afford, and I am wondering if there is any way we could borrow a bit extra on the mortgage to cover this cost but I'm not sure if that is possible.

I guess I want to know if we are thinking too much into this and worrying about nothing, or if this should be a dealbreaker. Has anyone been in a similar situation that could offer some advice please? Were going to call up the water company today, and are waiting for the estate agent to find out if the current manhole is double sealed and of its only for the one house or the row of houses. Any help would be greatly appreciated! 

thearchitect

The manhole should have a double seal on it, to ensure that it is airtight?

quotememiserable

The first question is whether its on a public or private sewer. If it's a private one, serving only this property, then it's the owner's problem. If it's public (ie owned by the water company) then the key question is whether there's a building over agreement in place for this. If there's not, they may insist you move the manhole or take down the extension. In any even they can access the house of remove the extension if they need to access the sewer, eg if there's a blockage or a collapse.
I'd be very wary of buying a house with this arrangement.

JamoLew

Personally - I would run a mile.
Your rose tinted speccs are overruling your mind and common sense
Of course the current owner knew about it and of course he will claim there's been no issues
Ask him to pay for it to be moved before you proceed

A_Lert

I would want to know if it's just my drain, or if there's anyone else's sewage flowing through there. (If indeed it's a drain at all - it might be an access cover for another utility.)

AdrianC

It's not just a question of moving the actual access hatch... It gives access to something. What?

Is it a junction in the pipes? If so, then moving it would require all the pipes to be re-routed.

As has been said, it SHOULD be double-sealed, so odourproof. If it backs up to the point that it leaks, then you've got bigger issues...

Lifting the hatch will tell you instantly if it's double-sealed or not, and also what's under there.

davidmcn

If it only serves your house then any overflow from a blockage would otherwise just be popping up somewhere else (eg out of your toilet), so I doubt insurers will care. 

JGB1955

I would avoid it at all costs.  I used to work in the office at a local school.  My state-of-the-art new office was built over a manhole cover.  I cannot describe the horror and smell when the drains got blocked - maybe once every two years.  Having Dynarod jetting the drains in the middle of a room you use daily is not an experience I would wish on anyone.

jonnygee2

We have tried to look up the cost of moving it, but it looks like this can be anything from £1500 - £7500

It doesn't sound that expensive to me, given it's probably not something you need to do right now. It's something that could be done in a few years for example.

Given the house is in a location very important to you and is otherwise perfect, is it really worth giving in over something that might cost as little as £1500 to fix? As said don't trust the current owner, but dig into who owns it, what agreement is in place with the water company, and whether it can be moved - the person selling should be able to provide this really!

oystercatcher

We had a manhole under the kitchen floor of one of our previous houses. There was vinyl flooring laid over it which could have been rolled back if access was ever needed. We didn't have any problems in the 3 or so years we lived there. Wouldn't have known it was there without being told. 

ToasterScheme

This thread has gone overwhelmingly negative quite quickly. But it seems to me (probably, and most likely) that this used to be in the garden (where it was fine, unopened for many years), and then the extension was built over it. All signs suggest that this was done quite properly and well. It's been fine, unopened, for many more years.
As others have said - if your drains are subject to blocking then you have problems elsewhere - this probably isn't going to make a whole lot of difference.
Do you have any reason - just looking at the layout and the neighbours drain accesses - to suggest that this might be shared? Even then, it doesn't make much difference - opens up the risk of a drain blockage that you have no control over. That's got to be a ten-year event, or hopefully even less.
[with the proper checks of course] this sounds like something that isn't broken and shouldn't be fixed.
HTH