Drainage and water search report - contacting sewerage co or insure

FTB_Help

Hello

The property we're looking to purchase is tenanted, the vendor does not have copies of water bills as they do not live there.
In my drainage & water search it mentions the property is connected to the main water supply and does not indicate if drainage connects to public sewage or if it shares a section of private sewer with neighbours (i.e each neighbour has to contribute to maintenance, repairs etc)

Our solicitor put in the report that I can either insure against liability or contact sewerage company to check if it's connected to public sewage

How do I even go about checking? Who do I contact or is there more searches my solicitor can do to check?

davidmcn

Is it a big issue either way? Sewers don't generally need much in the way of maintenance. You can sort it out in the unlikely event of it mattering, rather than spend money unnecessarily on insurance. 

frogglet

If its got a septic tank then I'd check it complies with current legislation regarding discharges.

FTB_Help

frogglet said:

If its got a septic tank then I'd check it complies with current legislation regarding discharges.

No septic tank

Doozergirl

Accidentally deleted my reply. 

The CON29DW contains a map of all the larger public sewers and water supplies within a good 100 metres or so.  If you were on mains sewer, one would expect to see the sewers in the public highway, at the very least.  

You can ask the neighbours if there's a shared system. 

You can also have a CCTV survey carried out by a drain 'doctor' type person. It's often advisable before buying a house anyway as broken/cracked pipes can be a readily fixed source of horrible problems.  

FTB_Help

davidmcn said:

Is it a big issue either way? Sewers don't generally need much in the way of maintenance. You can sort it out in the unlikely event of it mattering, rather than spend money unnecessarily on insurance. 

Just have no idea who much maintenance or repairs will cost - just sound expensive!

davidmcn

FTB_Help said:

davidmcn said:

Is it a big issue either way? Sewers don't generally need much in the way of maintenance. You can sort it out in the unlikely event of it mattering, rather than spend money unnecessarily on insurance. 

Just have no idea who much maintenance or repairs will cost - just sound expensive!

You do realise your solicitor is just talking about whose liability it might be if and when there is any maintenance needing done, not telling you there is currently a need to carry out repairs? Sewers typically sit there for decades not needing any attention.

Falafels

FTB_Help said:

davidmcn said:

Is it a big issue either way? Sewers don't generally need much in the way of maintenance. You can sort it out in the unlikely event of it mattering, rather than spend money unnecessarily on insurance. 

Just have no idea who much maintenance or repairs will cost - just sound expensive!

All the private sewers were taken over by the water companies in 2011, except where they emptied into a septic tank or soakaway. If there's no septic tank or Deed of Easement (which would detail arrangements to share liability with neighbours), then you're probably connected to mains sewerage and can afford to relax.

You can contact your local water company to check this if you're worried. 

Within my experience, solicitors aren't necessarily aware of the legislation around sewers; I speak from bitter experience having had a sale fall through completely unnecessarily, and having had to explain the situation to solicitors involved in the following transaction (which went through successfully)! 

More here: https://www.water.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Private-Sewer-Transfer-Water-UK-Template.pdf

FTB_Help

Falafels said:

FTB_Help said:

davidmcn said:

Is it a big issue either way? Sewers don't generally need much in the way of maintenance. You can sort it out in the unlikely event of it mattering, rather than spend money unnecessarily on insurance. 

Just have no idea who much maintenance or repairs will cost - just sound expensive!

All the private sewers were taken over by the water companies in 2011, except where they emptied into a septic tank or soakaway. If there's no septic tank or Deed of Easement (which would detail arrangements to share liability with neighbours), then you're probably connected to mains sewerage and can afford to relax.

You can contact your local water company to check this if you're worried. 

Within my experience, solicitors aren't necessarily aware of the legislation around sewers; I speak from bitter experience having had a sale fall through completely unnecessarily, and having had to explain the situation to solicitors involved in the following transaction (which went through successfully)! 

More here: https://www.water.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Private-Sewer-Transfer-Water-UK-Template.pdf

Thank you, very new to this all, will check out the link