Public foul gravity sewer directly under house help please

jojoxxx2001

Hi
looking for some advice if possible.
the property we are buying I have found out today has a public foul gravity sewer directly under it.
I'm aware they are often running through gardens but have read is much more rare under the house itself.
I'm now concerned as what if it cracks under the house?
will it effect my house insurance costs?
Would anyone avoid buying? Should I be paying the same price for the property?
Will it effect future saleability?
Thanks in advance for help

Section62

jojoxxx2001 said:

Hi
looking for some advice if possible.
the property we are buying I have found out today has a public foul gravity sewer directly under it.
I'm aware they are often running through gardens but have read is much more rare under the house itself.
I'm now concerned as what if it cracks under the house?
will it effect my house insurance costs?
Would anyone avoid buying? Should I be paying the same price for the property?
Will it effect future saleability?

Drainage plans are not always very accurate.  I'd think it more likely the pipe runs along the side of the house, under the garage (or whatever the bit on the side is).

Have you or your surveyor been able to locate the upstream and downstream manholes?

jojoxxx2001

Thank you 
Would this type of sewer have the standard style square manhole covers.?
We didn't notice when viewing but will go and see today if we can see anything from the front.
This report landed on a bank holiday Friday afternoon leaving us worrying without access to our conveyancer etc

ProDave

You probably can't do much on your own, you would need a pair of T handles to insert to lift a drain cover off to have a look, do you have those?

Even if it does not pass directly under the house, it is something to be aware of because it might well scupper any plans of extending the house in the future.

user1977

jojoxxx2001 said:

will it affect my house insurance costs?

No, insurers don't ask about this sort of thing.

Section62

jojoxxx2001 said:

Thank you 
Would this type of sewer have the standard style square manhole covers.?
We didn't notice when viewing but will go and see today if we can see anything from the front.
This report landed on a bank holiday Friday afternoon leaving us worrying without access to our conveyancer etc

Unfortunately they could be round, square, rectangular, triangular, pentagonal or hexagonal.  But they are more likely to be cast or ductile iron rather than any other type of material.

In most cases the public sewer records have been created by surveying the manholes and making educated guesses about how they connect together.  Sometimes there can be additional (hidden or otherwise missed) manholes located between a pair, so the assumed straight-line connection between two surveyed manholes may turn out to be something very different in reality.  Coupled with the positions of manholes not being plotted correctly it is easy for cases like yours to occur where the assumed line is not really the logical route for the sewer to take.

Sometimes public sewers do run under buildings, but in most cases I've come across a situation like yours turns out to be a survey/plotting error.

GDB2222

I suppose the OP still needs an answer whether to continue with the purchase if it does turn out that the sewer runs under the house. 

GrannyKate

Worth knowing where it is exactly because of potential future developments.  When we had our extension built 12 years ago the building inspector had quite a few conditions relating to the sewer if it stayed where it was but recommended the best course was to move it out of the new property line so it would be under the new patio not under the bungalow.  Cost about an extra £1000 I believe. 

GDB2222

GrannyKate said:

Worth knowing where it is exactly because of potential future developments.  When we had our extension built 12 years ago the building inspector had quite a few conditions relating to the sewer if it stayed where it was but recommended the best course was to move it out of the new property line so it would be under the new patio not under the bungalow.  Cost about an extra £1000 I believe. 

You can do that with your own drains, but can you do it with a public sewer?

GrannyKate

Not sure where the distinction lies.  On our land but connected to houses either side as well.

Section62

GDB2222 said:

GrannyKate said:

Worth knowing where it is exactly because of potential future developments.  When we had our extension built 12 years ago the building inspector had quite a few conditions relating to the sewer if it stayed where it was but recommended the best course was to move it out of the new property line so it would be under the new patio not under the bungalow.  Cost about an extra £1000 I believe. 

You can do that with your own drains, but can you do it with a public sewer?

You can ask the sewerage undertaker to divert a public sewer - they may agree to allow you to do the work yourself, or may want to do the work and bill you for it.  In a few cases (mainly with major or trunk sewers) there isn't an option to divert.

But it is usually an expensive business, and on a domestic scale the costs can easily be out of all proportion to the value of the property.