Private sewer adoption

Carpetto

I am in the process of buying a house.
As part of the searches the water company have identified the nearest public sewer as being some way away. 
Our solicitor has told us to assume that we are linked to this by a private sewer of which no one has details. 
The water company say that some private sewers were taken into public ownership and that there might, therefore, be a public sewer nearer to us but say they have no details of it which we can't think is correct. 
Is it unreasonable of us to expect to know exactly what our liabilities are. 

Slithery

Carpetto said:

The water company say that some private sewers were taken into public ownership and that there might, therefore, be a public sewer nearer to us but say they have no details of it which we can't think is correct.

Why do you think that this can't be correct? It's quite often the case.

canaldumidi

Water companies now have to adopt private sewers where these are shared. If your property is the only one using the private sewer linking your property to the public sewer it is highly unlikely they will adopt it.

Not unreasonable of you to want to know, but equally it's quite common! Your vendors may well have no idea, and nor may the water company....

Is your property isolated? Or a terrace or similar? Where is the nearest known public sewer and what properties stand near yours or between yours and the PS?

Doozergirl

Those sewers were taken into public ownership in 2011.   They haven't gone around mapping the millions of sewers that didn't belong to them before that date so yes, it's an unreasonable request. 

It's a bonus that the sewer that once belonged to the houses in the street now belong to the water company. 

I'd recommend getting a CCTV survey of the drains to any buyer to assess the condition, but it will help with routing them and assessing ownership as well.    

Carpetto

Thanks to the last 2 posters. That is useful information and if our solicitor had said this to us we would have understood. 
The house is the last one on a small road of individual houses so if there is a stretch that just goes to our house that we are responsible for but the rest is likely to be adopted we are reassured

housebuyer143

Carpetto said:

Thanks to the last 2 posters. That is useful information and if our solicitor had said this to us we would have understood. 
The house is the last one on a small road of individual houses so if there is a stretch that just goes to our house that we are responsible for but the rest is likely to be adopted we are reassured

Even if you are at the end of the line, they will adopt yours too as long as it passed under your neighbours. 
The only time they wouldn't I believe is if your house was in the middle of nowhere and the sewer quite literally only went to your house from the main line and didn't pass under anyone elses.

Doozergirl

housebuyer143 said:

Carpetto said:

Thanks to the last 2 posters. That is useful information and if our solicitor had said this to us we would have understood. 
The house is the last one on a small road of individual houses so if there is a stretch that just goes to our house that we are responsible for but the rest is likely to be adopted we are reassured

Even if you are at the end of the line, they will adopt yours too as long as it passed under your neighbours. 
The only time they wouldn't I believe is if your house was in the middle of nowhere and the sewer quite literally only went to your house from the main line and didn't pass under anyone elses.

Not true.  The first house on a run, where it isn't yet shared, is private.   As soon as it crosses the boundary to next door, it becomes shared and adopted.  

Section62

Carpetto said:

The house is the last one on a small road of individual houses so if there is a stretch that just goes to our house that we are responsible for but the rest is likely to be adopted we are reassured

The key caveat to the previous comments is that the sewer has to 'communicate' with a public sewer - in other words the previously private sewers must connect to the public sewer.  If they discharge into a private treatment works or spetic tank, or into a watercourse/ditch/pond then they weren't adopted.

If the house is a long way from the nearest public sewer there is often the possibility of a private treatment plant.  A drainage survey as Doozergirl suggested is the best way of confirming the connection and status of the pipes.

Spreadsheetman

This explains the conditions for a sewer to be adopted under the 2011 act: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/69356/private-sewers-transfer-guidance110928.pdf