Sewer pipe under the property

[tethersend]

The house we want to buy has a sewage pipe running underneath it with a manhole in the garden. The pipe is the house owner's responsibility to maintain as far as I understand it.

Would this put you off buying a house? It's a 3 bed Victorian semi with the manhole directly behind the property- whilst we do not want to extend (so the manhole location isn't an issue for us) in that direction, I am worried that it could affect resale value. The garden is fairly small, and I can't imagine anyone wanting to extend further into it, but we are getting close to exchange and I'm freaking out.

Is there anything we should do before exchanging? Should I ask the water company to inspect the pipe?

I would get someone to cctv it before you exchange to check it's all intact. We are about to build over our private drains and have just had report back saying there are a couple of minor cracks. So we will pay to seal before we build over it. We used alpha rod. Not sure if they are nationwide . Worth checking if private sewer or it belongs to local water company. I think they might come and check if it does

Thank you- think it's a Thames water sewer, will call them tomorrow.

Have you had any issues before your building work?

"The pipe is the house owner's responsibility to maintain as far as I understand it."
No, if anyone elses drainage runs through the pipe then it's Thames waters responsibility to maintain it. You might want to do some checks to find out what kind of access they have though, they might have the right to dig up your place at short notice to repair the sewer, and although they would put things back, it wouldn't be ideal

I think that’s a fairly common arrangement for an urban Victorian property. Mine is the same. If you want to extend, you would have to move the manhole and if you wanted to follow good practice and reroute the entire pipe down your side access you could, but it may prove cheaper to re-line the existing pipe which would give you extra protection against future leaks. All this only valid is you are the sole user of the drain; if it’s a shared drain, the rules are different.