Should I be worried about this ? (Water Report)

amc1

I'm buying a house and in the water report from my solicitor it says :-

Does the public sewer map show any public sewer, disposal main or lateral within the boundary line of the property?

Answer: It has not been a requirement for water companies to keep up-to-date public sewer records; therefore it is possible for unidentified sewers to exist within the boundary line of the property. For the matter of this report – Available records indicate that there is a public sewer, disposal main or lateral drain within the boundaries of the property.

waterreport.jpg

Firstly, do I need to be worried about there being a public sewer so close ? And secondly, does the image suggest that it is also running under the garage ? Many thanks.

Grumpy_chap

Is the garage an extension to the original house?

Where are the actual manhole covers located? That will probably allow you to work out whether the sewer is under or alongside the garage.

amc1

The manhole cover is outside, directly behind and in line with the garage door.

I don't think the garage is an extension but not 100% sure as it is a flat roof.

Bigphil1474

We had a sewer running through our back garden at our old house. It ran along the entire length of houses across the back garden. Not an issue for me.

Section62

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6664286/should-i-be-worried-about-this-water-report

Answer: It has not been a requirement for water companies to keep up-to-date public sewer records

This^ is the key thing, although not strictly correct. There has been a requirement for records of public sewers to be maintained (originally by the local council, then the water authority/company) but there was no requirement for them to go searching for sewers which weren't on the public record, and then in 2011 they were given a whole bunch of sewers there were virtually no records for whatsoever.

The records that exist are therefore incomplete and not very accurate. The only way to be confident where sewers are and what they do is to get a sewer survey for the property, but even that doesn't exclude the possibility of missing one that doesn't have an access point within the property boundary.

I'd be a bit surprised if the dashed line going under the garage was a public sewer - but the only way of knowing for sure is to get it surveyed and see if there are any other properties connected to it.

Grumpy_chap

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81964965#Comment_81964965

The solid line running along the front (?) of the property and into / out of the adjacent properties is a public sewer. Depending on the accuracy of the drawing, this might even be in the the highways extent.

The dotted line running under the garage is more likely a private sewer - how many inlets are there to the manhole?

To answer the question in the title: No, I don't think there is anything to be worried about.