cost of public sewer inspection and build over advice

immy1

Hi all  hope you can give some advice.

We have a public sewer running a couple of feet next to an existing extension on our land. Twenty years ago when we built the extension we decided to make it smaller than originally planned otherwise we were told that an inspection would be required by the water company.  We were worried to go ahead as if any problems were found with the sewer we were afraid that this might end up costing us a serious amount of money which we did not have.   We  would now like to build a garden room and a small utility room.   If any problems were found by the water company what would be the rough costs to us? Would we even be allowed to build over at all?  Does anyone have any experience of this? Thanks

Davesnave

If it's a public sewer and your previous work was so long ago and not over it, it's condition now is very unlikely to be of direct concern to you. The water authority will be responsible for any repairs required.

No one knows exactly what the authority will say as each build-over is unique, but there will be costs in meeting whatever conditions are imposed on the build. These will be affected by things like the depth of the sewer. Just hope it's not over 2m down, as ours was!

immy1

I didn't realize that the water authority would be responsible for any repairs required. I always thought that it the cost of any repairs to the sewer would fall to the home owner if the sewer was on their land so that is very good to know thank you.  I honestly don't know the depth of the sewer. Could you give me any idea of your costs as your sewer was 2m down?  We are operating on a very tight budget so it would be good if we had some idea of the rough expense involved. 

Ian1961

We had a conservatory built over an existing inspection hole a long time back on our previous house, i queried at the time about any problems future wise and they said all would be fine. Planning permission obtained. However, upon selling the house a few years ago the buyers solicitor raised the issue whether we had been granted permission by the Local water authority? Obviously the answer was no, so we had to buy an indemnity to cover this to proceed with the sale. I just can't get my head round these legal people who think you've built something over a cover? Homeowners expect the builders to know what they're doing. Do they think you're going to tile a floor and leave the cover insitu with a rug over it in case the water board need access?

Davesnave

immy1 said:

I didn't realize that the water authority would be responsible for any repairs required. I always thought that it the cost of any repairs to the sewer would fall to the home owner if the sewer was on their land so that is very good to know thank you.  I honestly don't know the depth of the sewer. Could you give me any idea of your costs as your sewer was 2m down?  We are operating on a very tight budget so it would be good if we had some idea of the rough expense involved. 

You called it a 'public sewer' and unless your property isn't sharing it at that point, that's what it is. Since 2011 water authorities have been responsible for all shared sewers, regardless of whose land they're on.

The only foul water drain you are responsible for maintaining is the one on your property up to the point where it joins another from one or more other households.

I can't tell you anything relevant about costs because my build-over was in 1989, but as I said, every case will be different and ours was about as bad as it gets!

immy1

Hi again and thanks for the further information.  I've actually just found the letter regarding the original extension and when we decided to pull it back to avoid any inspection. The letter is dated 2003.  It says that the one on our property is a public sewer. The water authority may have allowed building over but wanted to carry out a CCTV survey at the time to check the condition of the drains. Once this was done then they would make a decision. At that time a build over a sewer agreement cost £248.00 and a CCTV survey was £150.00.  At this point we decided not to bother but now we would like a utility and garden room. Hopefully no problems will be found if we decide to go ahead with the inspection and as long as we won't  be liable for any repairs to the sewer itself we are now considering proceeding with plans.