Buying house with manhole in kitchen

Top11

See pic attached. Wanting to purchase this house. Its had a extension built over the manhole. Theres no buidling regs or planning permission.  Current owner does not know when it was done as he only lived there last 4 years.

He has since placed new flooring tiles completly covering the manhole. Theres no othere manhole at the front or back of property.
Should i still go ahead with purchase, i dont know if this manhoel is shared with neighbours either?

Jemma01

I personally wouldn't buy a property without building permission. If I love the property and am prepared to wait, I'd ask them to get it approved (at least you'll find out whether or not, it'll ever be approved, or how much it'll cost to get it approved).
I appreciate some people don't mind, but as someone who wants the flexibility to sell, it is important to me to have all the paperwork ready. With that said, they might have sold it for cheap because of the lack of permission; still not an excuse for not finding out how much it'll cost to approve.

GDB2222

The manhole provides access for rodding if there's a blockage. Are you prepared for all that work to be done in the kitchen?  You'd need to check the cover comes off without the tiles breaking. It's not obvious how you'd grab hold of it, but maybe a couple of big suction cups would work.

Planning is probably not a problem, but lack of building regs would be a concern, and you'd need to get a very thorough survey. 

I don't think it's an absolute no-no, but it would need to be attractively priced.

Penguin_

GDB2222 said:

The manhole provides access for rodding if there's a blockage. Are you prepared for all that work to be done in the kitchen?  You'd need to check the cover comes off without the tiles breaking. It's not obvious how you'd grab hold of it, but maybe a couple of big suction cups would work.

Planning is probably not a problem, but lack of building regs would be a concern, and you'd need to get a very thorough survey. 

I don't think it's an absolute no-no, but it would need to be attractively priced.

Looks like there are 2 notches on 2 sides which you'd be able to use something to lift half up. 

FreeBear

Penguin_ said:

GDB2222 said:

The manhole provides access for rodding if there's a blockage. Are you prepared for all that work to be done in the kitchen?  You'd need to check the cover comes off without the tiles breaking. It's not obvious how you'd grab hold of it, but maybe a couple of big suction cups would work.

Planning is probably not a problem, but lack of building regs would be a concern, and you'd need to get a very thorough survey. 

I don't think it's an absolute no-no, but it would need to be attractively priced.

Looks like there are 2 notches on 2 sides which you'd be able to use something to lift half up. 

Similar to the manhole cover I have in my kitchen. The cover will be very heavy, and probably corroded. It needs lifting straight up, and may well need a few whacks with a big hammer to shock it loose. You can get specialist lifting tools for these covers, or you could fabricate one yourself if you have the tools & materials.

Top11

Currently that tiled flooring has had luxury vinyl flooring tiled over it. The owner has showed me that pic before he laid the new flooring directly over it...

Olinda99

I would concentrate less on the manhole cover - you know it is there and if worse comes to worse you'll just have to roll back the luxury lino to access the sewer for rodding - although the chances of that needing to happen is fairly small to be fair

building the extension without building regulations on the other hand is a completely different kettle of fish. this is where I would concentrate your efforts

apart from anything else internal manhole covers are not allowed so you would be unlikely to get building regulations approval and the manhole cover would need to be relocated or the extension demolished

moneysaver1978

If you really like the house and the location, would an offer price be acceptable to allow for moving the manhole to outside? Looking at the state of that kitchen still a building site, maybe that's something to consider?

https://nysconstruction.co.uk/blog/how-much-will-it-costto-move-drains-for-my-extension/#:~:text=Overall, the average cost of,and relandscaping may be necessary.

Albermarle

apart from anything else internal manhole covers are not allowed so you would be unlikely to get building regulations approval and the manhole cover would need to be relocated or the extension demolished

Although internal manhole covers are not allowed now, they used to be allowed. Not sure of the time scale but we have one that was part of an extension about 24 years ago and it all got full building regulation approval. So assuming the kitchen is say > 20 years old then having the internal manhole would not be a building regulations issue, and it can stay where it is.
In any case if it is > 20 year old then AFAIK it is too far back to be applying for building regs approval anyway ?
If the OP has a survey and everything looks OK , I would not be worrying too much.

Top11

Ok thanks all. That is a old pic the seller sent me before he changed the flooring.
He's nit sure when the previous owner built extension but he thinks maybe 2011

maman

Until very recently, we had a manhole cover as described in our conservatory. It was lifted from time to time for drain issues. 

We're currently replacing the conservatory with a permanent extension and have had the manhole repositioned outside.