Public Sewer - Under the house. Please Help!

hounsehunterftb

Hello guys!!
Any help and advice on the matter would be thoroughly appreciated as we are worried as to what this means for us buying the house. We recently received our mortgage offer about the house and consequently searches were ordered. We received our water searches and it has flagged for couple of things. 

1. Water main - just at the front of the property and running through the whole of CLOSE
2. Public sewer (S24 Combined Sewer) - Under the house potentially. 
   

We are marjorly gutted as this might hamper our chances of extension possily through the side. That was our major reason for going ahead with this house for the potential we see it has. (Extension from the side behind the garage - ground and single storey) 
So our question

1. Has anyone come across this situation and bought the house anyway?
2. And also applied for extension and were successful? If so whats the extra procedure for it? Build-over certificate? 

Any help would HIGHLY appreciated
Thank you so much!

Doozergirl

It's only a little one and it's not exactly unusual.  

if your plan is to infill the piece that would turn the L shape of the house into a rectangle, then there's no obvious problem.  The manhole would stay outside the house, so you just need a build over agreement in order to meet building regulations. 

It's not an issue at all, from what I can see.  

FinallyStoppedLurking

We had an issue with a sewer that ended up with us withdrawing. Slightly different scenario that made the situation worse. 
People had built on the land adjacent to their house. They built over the sewer that connected their house to the main road. Even though it was only 1 house that the sewer went to it was still public meaning a build over agreement should have been sought and it wasn't. There was no option to get a build over agreement retrospectively so there was a risk (albeit very small) that we could be asked to demolish the house. We couldn't get indemnity insurance as the sewer company were made aware of the issues as part of our investigations.
My lines of inquiry would be:
1. When was the house built?
2. Has the drain always been public or was it made public as part of the 2011 transfers?
3. Was a build over agreement in place?
If the drain was previously private but made public in 2011 then you would have automatic build over.

You'd likely get a build over agreement for the extension so this wouldn't be too much of a concern to me. The footings may cost a little more and you may have to move the man hole that will have an expense (this will depend on the size of the extension and the proximity to drains stipulated in any build over agreement).
If there was never a build over agreement I would walk away. If it is just related to future extensions I wouldn't see an issue as this is fairy common.

Doozergirl

There was never a chance of being asked to demolish a house!   Diverting the sewer would always be more cost effective than that! 

An indemnity policy would cover an unusual situation.  Solicitors know not to go alerting authorities if there is a question mark over permissions.  Someone made a serious error by contacting them and turning a hurdle into a genuine problem.  

I'm even confused as to how a sewer serving one house on its own plot could be shared and therefore adopted by the water company.   

FinallyStoppedLurking

Doozergirl said:

There was never a chance of being asked to demolish a house!   Diverting the sewer would always be more cost effective than that! 

An indemnity policy would cover an unusual situation.  Solicitors know not to go alerting authorities if there is a question mark over permissions.  Someone made a serious error by contacting them and turning a hurdle into a genuine problem.  

You are probably right but we'd have had to pay for this with no indemnity insurance. 

FinallyStoppedLurking

Oh and it was me who naively contacted the water company. 

hounsehunterftb

Doozergirl said:

It's only a little one and it's not exactly unusual.  

if your plan is to infill the piece that would turn the L shape of the house into a rectangle, then there's no obvious problem.  The manhole would stay outside the house, so you just need a build over agreement in order to meet building regulations. 

It's not an issue at all, from what I can see.  

Thanks for your reply!! Thats spot on basically wanting to fill in the gap to make it rectangular is our idea of extension. (Extends the kitchen from right and having a bedroom on top.. plenty of potential). So how easy (to your knowledge) is it to get the build over agreement? 
We really don't want to lose out on this house with this whole "sewer under the house" panic. At the same time want to ensure we are doing everything right before proceeding

hounsehunterftb

FinallyStoppedLurking said:

We had an issue with a sewer that ended up with us withdrawing. Slightly different scenario that made the situation worse. 
People had built on the land adjacent to their house. They built over the sewer that connected their house to the main road. Even though it was only 1 house that the sewer went to it was still public meaning a build over agreement should have been sought and it wasn't. There was no option to get a build over agreement retrospectively so there was a risk (albeit very small) that we could be asked to demolish the house. We couldn't get indemnity insurance as the sewer company were made aware of the issues as part of our investigations.
My lines of inquiry would be:
1. When was the house built?
2. Has the drain always been public or was it made public as part of the 2011 transfers?
3. Was a build over agreement in place?
If the drain was previously private but made public in 2011 then you would have automatic build over.

You'd likely get a build over agreement for the extension so this wouldn't be too much of a concern to me. The footings may cost a little more and you may have to move the man hole that will have an expense (this will depend on the size of the extension and the proximity to drains stipulated in any build over agreement).
If there was never a build over agreement I would walk away. If it is just related to future extensions I wouldn't see an issue as this is fairy common.

Thanks a lot for your reply And for sharing the line of inquiry. We would ask them to our solicitors. They just confirmed that they have raised further queries but would send him an email anyway
The house was built somewhere around in early-to-mid 1980s.

• So this build over agreement is with the water authorities (whenever we have to apply for extension)?
• Should the build over agreement have been in place since the house was build over 1980s? 
• What if they can't present the build over agreement? Any way around (I guess we will speak to our solicitors about this as well)
• How can we find out if the sewer was previously private and then made public after 2011? And if that is the case we would have automatic build over which implies we wouldn't have to apply for this extra build over agreement? 

Sorry for some more questions. Thank you again!

Doozergirl

A build over agreement for a small share sewer isn't a yes/no thing.  It will be granted, you just need to follow the process laid out by the water company and build over it as prescribed.  

To answer the other four questions.  Your house was built in 1980s.  At that time it would have been a private sewer.  All private sewers that serve more than one property were automatically adopted by the water companies in 2011 under a law Introduced by the government.  No paperwork is required for the existing house, it was a national, not an individual issue.  You will need to obtain the paperwork from the water company for any future build over.  

FinallyStoppedLurking

hounsehunterftb said:

FinallyStoppedLurking said:

We had an issue with a sewer that ended up with us withdrawing. Slightly different scenario that made the situation worse. 
People had built on the land adjacent to their house. They built over the sewer that connected their house to the main road. Even though it was only 1 house that the sewer went to it was still public meaning a build over agreement should have been sought and it wasn't. There was no option to get a build over agreement retrospectively so there was a risk (albeit very small) that we could be asked to demolish the house. We couldn't get indemnity insurance as the sewer company were made aware of the issues as part of our investigations.
My lines of inquiry would be:
1. When was the house built?
2. Has the drain always been public or was it made public as part of the 2011 transfers?
3. Was a build over agreement in place?
If the drain was previously private but made public in 2011 then you would have automatic build over.

You'd likely get a build over agreement for the extension so this wouldn't be too much of a concern to me. The footings may cost a little more and you may have to move the man hole that will have an expense (this will depend on the size of the extension and the proximity to drains stipulated in any build over agreement).
If there was never a build over agreement I would walk away. If it is just related to future extensions I wouldn't see an issue as this is fairy common.

Thanks a lot for your reply And for sharing the line of inquiry. We would ask them to our solicitors. They just confirmed that they have raised further queries but would send him an email anyway
The house was built somewhere around in early-to-mid 1980s.

• So this build over agreement is with the water authorities (whenever we have to apply for extension)?
• Yes, you apply to your local water authority.
• Should the build over agreement have been in place since the house was build over 1980s? 
• I think it is likely that all the houses were built together. The drain being built at the time would have been private but made public in 2011. If this is the case then no build over would have been needed as the house would have been installed at the same time. I'd guess it was made into a public sewer in 2011.
• What if they can't present the build over agreement? Any way around (I guess we will speak to our solicitors about this as well)
• [As above I think it is unlikely they would have needed one if the houses were built at the same time and the sewers only serves other houses on the estate
• How can we find out if the sewer was previously private and then made public after 2011? And if that is the case we would have automatic build over which implies we wouldn't have to apply for this extra build over agreement? 
• Through the water company

Sorry for some more questions. Thank you again!

Answered above. I would note that all my answers are based on my experience/ research I did when buying our previous house so may not be 100% correct. 

hounsehunterftb

Doozergirl said:

A build over agreement for a small share sewer isn't a yes/no thing.  It will be granted, you just need to follow the process laid out by the water company and build over it as prescribed.  

To answer the other four questions.  Your house was built in 1980s.  At that time it would have been a private sewer.  All private sewers that serve more than one property were automatically adopted by the water companies in 2011 under a law Introduced by the government.  No paperwork is required for the existing house, it was a national, not an individual issue.  You will need to obtain the paperwork from the water company for any future build over.  

That explains a lot! Thank you so much.