Would you buy a house that's built over a public sewer?

beb4

Hi all. Out of interest, would you buy a house that was built over a public sewer if the water company advised that the risk of having to access the pipe through the house was HIGHLY unlikely and that there'd been no flooding on record in the last 6 years at least (possibly ever) and if the seller could provide you with indemnity insurance to cover you IF works ever were needed.

Its the actual house built over it 100yrs ago just for context and the sewer serves several terraced houses.

Trying to figure out how much it'd potentially put future buyers off.

caprikid1

Yes

quite common I would think, especially in london

Ramouth

Yes

Common in a lot of the country since private sewers became public.  

Having said yes, it would depend slightly on the sewer.  One serving 3 houses in a terrace with external access elsewhere - yes.  Sewer serving a few houses where the only access point is in the kitchen floor - no.  Public sewer serving a whole housing estate - no.

beb4

Ramouth said:

Common in a lot of the country since private sewers became public.  

Having said yes, it would depend slightly on the sewer.  One serving 3 houses in a terrace with external access elsewhere - yes.  Sewer serving a few houses where the only access point is in the kitchen floor - no.  Public sewer serving a whole housing estate - no.

It serves 10 terraced houses and there's at least one external access point - would that be a no?

piglet2017

I'm not sure that I would. I live in a rented flat which is on the ground floor of a Victorian terrace conversion. I had rising damp in my living room which was coming from the cracked sewage pipe underneath the property. They did manage to do the work from outside the front in the end, but really what they should have done was exposed the manhole in the living room to carry out the work - obviously that would have been extremely disruptive. Also the damp was awful and resulted in a mouldy carpet that made me unwell. I would guess a lot of the sewer pipes are getting old and prone to cracking so it's not an ideal risk to take.

Woolsery

I sold a house where I built an extension over a public sewer. It also had 2 more sewers meeting it at the bottom of the garden. It was all a non-issue from my and the buyer's POV. It might have been different if it hadn't been more than 2m deep and the garden hadn't been 1/4 acre though.

Situations vary.

FreeBear

beb4 said:

Ramouth said:

Common in a lot of the country since private sewers became public.  

Having said yes, it would depend slightly on the sewer.  One serving 3 houses in a terrace with external access elsewhere - yes.  Sewer serving a few houses where the only access point is in the kitchen floor - no.  Public sewer serving a whole housing estate - no.

It serves 10 terraced houses and there's at least one external access point - would that be a no?

So a pipe 6-8" diameter - I personally wouldn't see that as an issue. If it did need repair, water boards have several methods they can use that doesn't involve digging up the whole run of pipe. Worst case, the pipe could probably be rerouted.

youth_leader

I wouldn't risk it as I'm not a lucky person, and now living at number 13!

movilogo

We all carry sewers inside our body  so no issue. 

Section62

beb4 said:

Trying to figure out how much it'd potentially put future buyers off.

You need a "Maybe" option as well.

In your case I'd say 'maybe' tending towards 'no' as you tried to get a survey done with inconclusive results.

I'd also not place so much faith in the advice of the water company to warrant the "HIGHLY" being in block caps.  The advice is probably from someone working in a call centre giving generic answers to customer enquiries, not advice specific to your situation.

There's also a world of difference between a public sewer serving two houses, and a trunk sewer.  Without taking the type of sewer, age, depth, construction materials etc into account the answer for me would always be "maybe".

Section62

movilogo said:

We all carry sewers inside our body  so no issue. 

Generally people don't allow other people's bodily waste, used cooking oil, wet wipes, condoms and sanitary products to pass through their own 'inside sewer', so the two aren't really comparable.