Santander & Private Water Supply

deepdown

I am buying a house with a private water supply, porting my mortgage with Santander directly.

My solicitor is on annual leave this week and I was looking for advice on something which is urgent in terms of scheduling a report as we are looking for a quick move.

My mortgage offer says 'the property is believed to be connected to a private water supply. A specialist report SHOULD be obtained to confirm that it complies with statutory regulations for safe drinking water'

Then further in it says 'The reliability of the supply MUST also be confirmed prior to funds release'

My solicitor has told me previously that a report is only 'advised'. So who confirms the reliability of the supply to Santander before the funds are released if I do not need a specialist report? Is the confirmation of the current owners that it has never ran dry, enough? Does the solicitor tell Santander or will we get to exchange and they ask me for the report?

Thank you for any thoughts!

martindow

There is another thread on a similar theme here

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6496707/how-to-prove-that-a-borehole-water-supply-is-potable-and-uninterrupted-for-mortgage-valuation

deepdown

I saw that, it didn't give any info on how it was resolved. I already posted a question for the OP..

RAS

Probably a test of the water to make sure it's potable.

Albermarle

deepdown said:

I saw that, it didn't give any info on how it was resolved. I already posted a question for the OP..

The OP of that thread has not been active on any MSE forum for 10 months, so may not respond

Bigphil1474

OP, from what you've said, I'd be asking your solicitor to ask their solicitor to ask the current residents for confirmation that the supply is reliable. Job done. 

In terms of finding out if it's potable, you could ask your local council if they would test the supply. There will be a charge. There are plenty of private water supply companies around as well. The local waterboard may even provide the service. Bear in mind, you'll probably need a company to do regular servicing/maintenance on your system anyway. 

I used to deal with private water supplies at work, it's been a long time though. It may need a survey and assessment. They can do basic potability tests but there are dozens of parameters that could be tested for and that is expensive. Main one is that it's microbiologically safe and doesn't have any nasties like lead in it. Depends what type of private water supply as well. A borehole is different to a spring supply. Both will need some sort of treatment system. Is it a shared supply or single property supply. I used to look at some spring supplies that had a source which was hundreds of yards from the actual property in a farmers field so needed protection in that field. Lots of variables.