Foul manhole in downstairs shower room

manholeshower

We have had an offer accepted last week on a property which from primary searches (I know people with access to these maps...) has a foul sewer underneath the extension which includes an inspection manhole in the downstairs shower room. 
The extension was constructed in excess of 15 years ago by a previous owner. At that time the sewer was probably private but shared between 4 properties. It is now public (as of 2011, I understand). 
I have called our solicitor who doesn't think there would be a legal issue in continuing and we could ask for an indemnity policy because of lack of Build Over Agreement. 
We have a drainage engineer going out to look at it and one of the questions we want to know is: can we move it? 
Does anyone have anyone have any experience or advice? Should we ditch out now? 

user1977

I expect you can move it if there's somewhere else for it to go. You'll have a better idea than us about that!

Slithery

It's been fine for 15 years, why would you want to go through the expense and hassle of moving it?

manholeshower

Mainly because I am not so keen about the potential for it to back up it into the kitchen and the need for rodding inside the house 

Section62

manholeshower said:

Mainly because I am not so keen about the potential for it to back up it into the kitchen and the need for rodding inside the house 

The main issue (another question for the drainage engineer) is the type of manhole cover in use.

If it is sealed - or contains a sealed fitting - and the seal is in good condition and functioning properly then it would act in the same way as plain pipe and any backing up shouldn't result in leakage inside the house.

Likewise, water companies typically use jetting to clear blockages rather than rodding and if the manhole is properly and securely sealed then this won't be an issue. If the cover isn't secured there is a risk of the pressure from the jet lifting the cover and spraying the shower room.

If there isn't an external manhole suitable for jetting from then it is likely the water company will opt to break into the drain/sewer outside and jet from there (building a replacement manhole when finished) rather than deal with the complications of bringing jetting equipment through the house and into the existing manhole.

Not having a buildover agreement is irrelevant if the pipe was private when the building works took place. I would only be concerned if it couldn't be demonstrated that the work happened prior to the change in ownership of the pipe/sewer. Presumably there are planning/building regs records which would confirm the date?

manholeshower

Thanks for your reply Section62! Really interesting point about the sealed fitting. 
I am not sure on the building regs. The extension is less than 3m so PD in any event. The extension was built by previous owners, current owners moved to the property in 2007. 

Section62

manholeshower said:

I am not sure on the building regs. The extension is less than 3m so PD in any event. The extension was built by previous owners, current owners moved to the property in 2007.

Any property listing photographs or streetview images showing the extension pre-2011? Going back to 2007 there will be fewer online sources available.

And a minor point, but worth bearing in mind, an extension being less than 3m doesn't automatically mean it comes under PD. There are other factors to take into account and all the boxes need to be ticked for PD to apply. I'm just mentioning that in case someone has told you it was fine because it was less than 3m.

After this length of time planning enforcement is unlikely, but vendors have been known to be less than truthful, and if there is no paperwork or other evidence whatsoever then proving the work wasn't done more recently could be tricky.

manholeshower

Thanks Section62- I am a Planning Consultant and used to work for the district council the house is in so know about that side of it. I just have no clue on building control or sewers. Hopefully the current owners will be able to provide the evidence when required. We are lucky we have a thorough solicitor as well. 

I really appreciate your input and thoughts- I will be asking the engineer who is apparently going on Friday!