Conservatory with no building consent, built over a manhole cover.

JoeyTee

Hi all,

I'm in the process of buying a property and it has come to light that the conservatory was built over a manhole cover but building consent was not obtained at the time (2005). The surveyor that did the drainage CCTV survey couldn't access the pipes to the rear of the property because of this. My building surveyor says building consent should definitely have been obtained.

My solicitor could only advise me to get indemnity insurance but I'm aware that is not a perfect solution.

I'm trying to make sense of the drainage search result, it includes a map for the pipes etc. I don't want to post the map because I don't want to risk invalidating any indemnity policy.

The road shows both dark red and blue lines underneath it (foul and surface water), however the map doesn't show how those lines connect to the properties. There is just a blue circle where my garden is and that appears to be pretty much the exact spot the conservatory is so I'd guess that's something to do with the manhole cover, the map legend says Sewer. It also says the blue circle means it's surface water.

How worried should I be, would southern water likely be OK with the conservatory having been built over in my situation if I were to apply for retrospective permissions?

I don't know if I should pull out of the sale or not, it has really worried me that it will make the property hard to sell in the future or that I may be forced to remove the conservatory if the water company finds out. I'm also concerned how/if this will affect buildings insurance.

I hope someone can give me some advice, thank you so much in advance.

davilown

What permissions would you be applying for? Planning is well past the 4 year point for action, and there’s absolutely no way a conservatory from 2004 would get building consent.
Is there an issue with the drains? if you’re that worried about it then don’t buy it, or do what lots of people are doing now and knock the conservatory down either have a nice decked area or do the job properly and build an extension

Davesnave

To be brutally honest, a 16 year old conservatory would probably not  be the deciding factor for most people when deciding whether or not to purchase a property. Nevertheless, I might go back to the owner with this gripe and ask to negotiate something off for it. Depends on the exact nature of the purchase; something like this would have been laughed-at as trivial by my last vendor, but then I was buying a wreck!

Irishpearce26

Build over agreements came in 2011, anything before then will be covered by the utilities build over agreement structure. Just sold our house with the same issue and found the information on Severn Trents website after much research.

Soot2006

In my area this is super common - half the conservatories AND the extensions are over the drains and have inspection chambers under them. You get used to it, and you cross your fingers and hope the one in the middle of the house won't need opening because that would stink!   Loads of options for flooring that works with the manhole cover so it can still be accessed if needed. The main issue is that any work is now done inside the house rather than right outside ...

If done properly, you'd reroute the drains, but  many many many of these add-ons are not done properly. My house is like this and it made me pause for thoughts for a moment when we bought, then decided I can live with it. If any problems arise, we'll deal with them as and when!

JoeyTee

Irishpearce26 said:

Build over agreements came in 2011, anything before then will be covered by the utilities build over agreement structure. Just sold our house with the same issue and found the information on Severn Trents website after much research.

Interesting...I knew about the 2011 part but I am not familiar with what you've mentioned about the "utilities build over agreement structure".  I can't seem to find anything on Google about it, could you explain what it is or show me the page on their website you found it on?  Thanks!

Irishpearce26

JoeyTee said:

Irishpearce26 said:

Build over agreements came in 2011, anything before then will be covered by the utilities build over agreement structure. Just sold our house with the same issue and found the information on Severn Trents website after much research.

Interesting...I knew about the 2011 part but I am not familiar with what you've mentioned about the "utilities build over agreement structure".  I can't seem to find anything on Google about it, could you explain what it is or show me the page on their website you found it on?  Thanks!

Following the transfer however, we now have sewers which were constructed without any consultation with Severn Trent Water. Obviously this is causing concern for homeowners, who are not guaranteed what would happen in the event of any problem with these sewers. With no formal approval from Severn Trent, they could find themselves in a situation where they’ve legally carried out development work at their property, but have no guaranteed protection in the event of a problem.

So what happens in these cases? Fortunately for homeowners, Severn Trent Water extend the same general policy to transferred sewers that they do to ones that were public at the time of development. Providing normal Building Regulations were followed, and adequate steps were taken to protect any pipes, Severn Trent Water will treat them the same as any other sewer. This means that during any maintenance work, they will take all reasonable steps to protect the property, and repair any damage caused. Where Building Regulations were not followed, Severn Trent would take the same steps they would to protect the sewers that they would in any other circumstances.

https://www.severntrentsearches.com/build-over-problems/ 

Poppyka

@JoeyTee - did you decide to go through with your purchase?

im just bumping this up to prevent a similar post being posted. 

We’re in the process of buying a house where the shared pipe runs parallel with the extension - they building plans make reference to the foundations being of depth to avoid damage to the existing pipe work / drainage. The pipes can still be access for outside as it’s just the garden / decking area. It can also be access through the manholes. The cctv surveys didn’t show any damage to the pipes. 

Do you think we’ll be ok or should be we consider retrospective consent?

JoeyTee

Poppyka said:

@JoeyTee - did you decide to go through with your purchase?

im just bumping this up to prevent a similar post being posted. 

We’re in the process of buying a house where the shared pipe runs parallel with the extension - they building plans make reference to the foundations being of depth to avoid damage to the existing pipe work / drainage. The pipes can still be access for outside as it’s just the garden / decking area. It can also be access through the manholes. The cctv surveys didn’t show any damage to the pipes. 

Do you think we’ll be ok or should be we consider retrospective consent?

Yeah I went through with my purchase, it transpired that the conservatory wasn't built over the manhole cover - it was just outside to the left of it underneath a fence post.  It's likely too close (less than 3M) and should've had an agreement in place but my solicitor advised me that it really wasn't much of a risk.

As long as there's easy access like you say in case of a problem, I really wouldn't let it put you off buying the property!

Personally I say go for it!  Good luck.