Foul drainage not connected to a public sewer

Scotbot

One of the searches has revealed the foul water is not connected to a public sewer.  The vendor is disputing this. Will a drainage survey confirm if it is?

If it isn't what should I do? Is this a deal breaker? There is no cesspit.  

Voyager2002

One of my friends encountered this... she was buying a fairly old house in the heart of the city, and the idea that it was not connected to the sewer was highly unlikely, but she asked me to look at survey report and searches and that is what it said. Anyway, it was someone bored making silly mistakes when filling in the form. 

I think it would be a deal-breaker, but is far more likely to be an error. Query whoever issued the search and see what they say.

glennevis

Drain Dye should confirm where your waste water goes.

Grumpy_chap

Scotbot said:

One of the searches has revealed the foul water is not connected to a public sewer.  The vendor is disputing this. Will a drainage survey confirm if it is?

If it isn't what should I do? Is this a deal breaker? There is no cesspit.  

It is possible that the vendor is correct - are they able to walk you the route of the drainage from the property and lift the necessary manholes to prove that it connects to public sewer?

Scotbot

Grumpy_chap said:

Scotbot said:

One of the searches has revealed the foul water is not connected to a public sewer.  The vendor is disputing this. Will a drainage survey confirm if it is?

If it isn't what should I do? Is this a deal breaker? There is no cesspit.  

It is possible that the vendor is correct - are they able to walk you the route of the drainage from the property and lift the necessary manholes to prove that it connects to public sewer?

No I don't live in the area and even If I did I wouldn't have a  clue what I was looking at. Hence my question will a drainage survey confirm whether or not it is connected?

Bookworm105

Scotbot said:

t. Hence my question will a drainage survey confirm whether or not it is connected?

you can answer that yourself Drainage Surveys: What Are They and When Do You Need One? | Homebuilding

mark_cycling00

I suspect that it is connected but there is no official record of this. Things were all recorded on paper until the 70s. We have no drains but nearby villagers were connected by German pows and the records are very patchy.

You can't simply discharge foul water, the whole area would smell if poo. And the neighbours would have complained and had it sorted pretty quick.

You either need a cess pit which is quite rare but the owner would definitely know about this due to regular emptying. Or a septic tank which although you may never empty you'd see a vent pipe and probably a manhole cover in the garden. 
Or a water treatment plant which would be connected to the house electrics and be a modern installation.

For the last option the seller would probably go on about how amazing it was and it halved your water bill from the water company 

Scotbot

Bookworm105 said:

Scotbot said:

t. Hence my question will a drainage survey confirm whether or not it is connected?

you can answer that yourself Drainage Surveys: What Are They and When Do You Need One? | Homebuilding

That says a survey will tell me if the drains are structurally sound. It doesn't say if it will tell me who owns them

Scotbot

Voyager2002 said:

One of my friends encountered this... she was buying a fairly old house in the heart of the city, and the idea that it was not connected to the sewer was highly unlikely, but she asked me to look at survey report and searches and that is what it said. Anyway, it was someone bored making silly mistakes when filling in the form. 

I think it would be a deal-breaker, but is far more likely to be an error. Query whoever issued the search and see what they say.

I have checked the search  it clearly shows no public sewer. So either the map is wrong or it's private. 

Doozergirl

You can get a CCTV survey done, yes, and that will prove it either way. 

It is highly unlikely that a relatively densely populated are like that would feature septic tanks etc.  when you're all of about 10-15 metres away from the foul sewer.  It's probably not mapped as the link used to be private.  

The inspection chamber marked next to your neighbours garage is a big indicator for me that there is likely to be a foul run across the back gardens.  

stuart45

The plan suggests to me it's on mains drainage. 
Soakaways for rainwater get blocked over the years, so running a foul drain into one wouldn't last very long.