shared sewage drain on driveway

[Savemefromukweather]

I am in the process of reserving new build and discovered on plans that foul sewage pipes from four properties is connected to main drain on the driveway. would this be a deal breaker for you ?

It wouldn't be for me, if your driveway is where 4 properties connect, the whole estate is probably set up so 1 house in every 4 has the shared drains connect there. It all sounds fairly standard, not a deal breaker to me.

Yes because you're responsible for any blockages up to the property boundary. If you had a prat neighbour who flushes wipes even flushable ones are bad, flushable doesn't mean degradable or tampons that's not just a prat, that's an idiot you'd be hard pressed to prove who caused the problem that is on your property making it your financial burden.

I'd only agree if all 4 properties were legally bound to pay for any blockages within the property boundary line that occur from the convergent point onwards.

Is the position on the driveway close to the house? Would that area ever, in the future, be a garage, conservatory, extension etc etc? If so, I'd only consider buying if it was in such a position, away from the house, that you'd never actually build over it.

I've just spent the past 12mths going back and forth over adding a small conservatory. Problem is, that the neighbouring properties sewers, all join up. We each have a man hole. The 1st, goes through the 2nd, then the 3rd etc, in our back gardens. We are the end of the line on a corner- so maybe 6 houses all go via the one in our garden.

Its illegal to build a conservatory over the top of a shared, public sewer and we have now spent thousands having the man hole and sewers moved around the new conservatory. Its been a nightmare and in highsight, wouldn't have bothered.

Yes, buying the house with shared drains has been fine, with no issues at all, BUT, if you ever need to build over it- never again!

@Eleoura

Is the position on the driveway close to the house? Would that area ever, in the future, be a garage, conservatory, extension etc etc? If so, I'd only consider buying if it was in such a position, away from the house, that you'd never actually build over it.

I've just spent the past 12mths going back and forth over adding a small conservatory. Problem is, that the neighbouring properties sewers, all join up. We each have a man hole. The 1st, goes through the 2nd, then the 3rd etc, in our back gardens. We are the end of the line on a corner- so maybe 6 houses all go via the one in our garden.

Its illegal to build a conservatory over the top of a shared, public sewer and we have now spent thousands having the man hole and sewers moved around the new conservatory. Its been a nightmare and in highsight, wouldn't have bothered.

Yes, buying the house with shared drains has been fine, with no issues at all, BUT, if you ever need to build over it- never again!

Thank you . No we will never have to built on top if it but as its on driveway and what about smell ?

@WTFisNext

Yes because you're responsible for any blockages up to the property boundary. If you had a prat neighbour who flushes wipes even flushable ones are bad, flushable doesn't mean degradable or tampons that's not just a prat, that's an idiot you'd be hard pressed to prove who caused the problem that is on your property making it your financial burden.

I'd only agree if all 4 properties were legally bound to pay for any blockages within the property boundary line that occur from the convergent point onwards.

Thank you . i ll query it

@DamnYouAutoCatRectal

It wouldn't be for me, if your driveway is where 4 properties connect, the whole estate is probably set up so 1 house in every 4 has the shared drains connect there. It all sounds fairly standard, not a deal breaker to me.

Thank you for re assurance

@WTFisNext

Yes because you're responsible for any blockages up to the property boundary. If you had a prat neighbour who flushes wipes even flushable ones are bad, flushable doesn't mean degradable or tampons that's not just a prat, that's an idiot you'd be hard pressed to prove who caused the problem that is on your property making it your financial burden.

I'd only agree if all 4 properties were legally bound to pay for any blockages within the property boundary line that occur from the convergent point onwards.

This isn't true where it's a shared sewer. I have this and the water board has been out twice to clear blockages and there's no charge to me

Get your conveyancer to confirm with the water co!

The only issue as far as I have found is not being able to build over the sewer.

We had similar bit an old house 1940s it was the main sewer and it ran straight down the side of our boundary from back to front.

We were only responsible for the bit of our sewer that joined to it. Not for the sewer itself.

I've had dynorod out several times at my old property due to "wipes" being flushed down my landlord attempted to charge me I pointed out my daughter was way out of nappies my son was not born and perhaps they should look next door where she had an actual baby and used wipes

Its a pita

Oh and there was a blockage once and the waterboard cleared it no charge to us.

We also built right next to it no problems but did cost us extra in special foundations and a build over agreement.

Would we able to replace tarmac driveway to resin in future or it will be bound with lots of restrictions

Oh god don’t do it or at least get some specialist advice. Our neighbour is the end of a few houses in our newbuild street and no one is getting the message about flushable wipes. Every now and again it backs up so badly that his downstairs toilet becomes a fountain of sewerage. They keep coming to ‘fix’ it but it’s been 2 years now.

The response of water companies to blocked drains is driven by legislation and should be explained on their web sites.
It is my understanding that where the sewer pipes serve only a single home it is the responsibility of that home to ensure it does not become blocked.
However, as soon as the sewer joins the sewer from another house the water company becomes responsible for dealing with any issues / blockages downstream from the shared junction.
Ie Your pipe = your problem. Shared pipe = Water Board problem.

Thus from the scenario you describe your responsibility would stop where the outflow of your home joins the 4 pipe junction.

You won’t get a smell from a foul water drain that is operating normally- if you did every home/street would stink

I’d consider this a downside to the property- for reasons given (neighbour induced blockages mainly). You CAN build over in these situations but need to move some drains - which adds cost. For a drive: possibly not such an issue. Are other equivalent plots available?

@DespairingHomeowner

You won’t get a smell from a foul water drain that is operating normally- if you did every home/street would stink

I’d consider this a downside to the property- for reasons given (neighbour induced blockages mainly). You CAN build over in these situations but need to move some drains - which adds cost. For a drive: possibly not such an issue. Are other equivalent plots available?

This issue is stressing me out .As all drains at front so i highly doubt we will ever need to build over it .its at front of double integral garage. If i have to sell house in future , will it put people off buying such properties? It will be our forever home but i am being cautious about my exit strategy just in case

Is this house a first HOUSE or a trade up?

I ask as FTBs possibly wouldn’t be thinking about implications, so might not think about this (I wasn’t… I’ve had to line drains under an extension, to get rid of a sewage smell. Cost £500 but has worked, so not a massive issue (now that it’s been solved!) and I would not have bought this house without the extension…

I think all houses have pros and cons: what are the pros of this house? What have been your no go’s on other houses?

There is always something… for me, deal breakers include busy road, backing onto train tracks or cemetery/allotments, any house with poor security etc. Those are bigger issues to me vs drains

I don’t think there is a perfect house: this sounds like a downside, but maybe not such a massive one, what are upsides?

Tbh, your best bet is to speak to a local drainage company to get an opinion too on how likely you might be to have problems

What other houses are you considering, is this the only downside of this one?

@DespairingHomeowner

Is this house a first HOUSE or a trade up?

I ask as FTBs possibly wouldn’t be thinking about implications, so might not think about this (I wasn’t… I’ve had to line drains under an extension, to get rid of a sewage smell. Cost £500 but has worked, so not a massive issue (now that it’s been solved!) and I would not have bought this house without the extension…

I think all houses have pros and cons: what are the pros of this house? What have been your no go’s on other houses?

There is always something… for me, deal breakers include busy road, backing onto train tracks or cemetery/allotments, any house with poor security etc. Those are bigger issues to me vs drains

I don’t think there is a perfect house: this sounds like a downside, but maybe not such a massive one, what are upsides?

Tbh, your best bet is to speak to a local drainage company to get an opinion too on how likely you might be to have problems

What other houses are you considering, is this the only downside of this one?

Thank you , this is what I needed to think from different perspective. i have not chosen other plots as most of them were quite close to busy road and i did not choose cul de sac because of lack of visitor parking space .

I chose this because its got bigger front garden and lots of privacy from both neighbours at front . its also facing small pond
Its also the most expensive plot.
no choice left on estate to select another plot.

downsides are drains issue and bit small garden which gets narrow by 2 metre at the back but still be 12 by 10 on most narrow part.
garden is also north east facing but we are not very keen on sitting under sun in the summer so it does not bother us that much.

Our sewage access is shared with a neighbour and accessed via their back garden. Because it is shared there is no cost to us to unblock it. We've had Thames Water out a couple of times to get things unblocked (I suspect linked to the builders next door) and there was no cost to me because it was shared - I assume it works out better than arguements over who is responsible causing water issues for multiple properties.

I really wouldn't worry about it - thousands of driveways have drain covers on and I bet you don't even notice. Better on your driveway than in your back garden as it will be easy to access if there is an issue. Also you won't be building on to your driveway so no issue with wanting an extension on top.

If you wanted to redo your drive, I imagine you'll just have to make sure it's still accessible (this should be clear from your title deeds, but is also common sense) and won't be a problem for any driveway company to accommodate.

The only thing that will start making this an issue, will be people asking if it's an issue and making others worry about reselling.

The responses have surprised me. We had an issue raised by the neighbour re shared drain. Water board came out and inspected multiple manholes to identify where the issue was. Drain served 4 properties. The place where the issue was, it served only 2. So we and neighbour were on the hook to share the cost to resolve 50/50. I thought that was standard - depending on the location of the blockage, all 4 properties would be liable

@MerryDecembermas

The responses have surprised me. We had an issue raised by the neighbour re shared drain. Water board came out and inspected multiple manholes to identify where the issue was. Drain served 4 properties. The place where the issue was, it served only 2. So we and neighbour were on the hook to share the cost to resolve 50/50. I thought that was standard - depending on the location of the blockage, all 4 properties would be liable

Nope, not standard. Shared sewers are the responsibility of the water board.

Honest, I've had them out three times as our road is slightly downhill and there are two large trees at the front of my house, so all the crap, literally, gets stuck by my house.

The person who said it comes up the loo - that's a totally different matter and something has been designed incorrectly there. That's just not normal. Many many houses are on shared sewers and backed up loos is not common!

In all my years of living ( a lot 😀) Ive never had a blocked drain or any problems with drains. It’s not a common problem op and I wouldn’t let it worry you or make it a deciding factor in buying a house or not 👍.

@Chumleymouse

In all my years of living ( a lot 😀) Ive never had a blocked drain or any problems with drains. It’s not a common problem op and I wouldn’t let it worry you or make it a deciding factor in buying a house or not 👍.

Thank you so much for this positive response. I am getting more inclined to ignore this now. Builders are very clever , there is not a single plot where it will tick all the boxes. Like main road plots get more big south facing gardens and play area but they have to put up with noise and plots at back will have smaller gardens and not exposed to noise. There was a plot where i could have gone but it was right next to cul de sac private road and there was bin collection on the side , which it does not bother me that much but parking cars on kerb could be bit difficult as it will be junction

We have to find out whether residents have to contribute to it or water board will adopt it . If its old house it would not worry much i lived before in 80 built property, everything was adopted and never had a issue. as its new build , not everything works the same way as its with old houses. i looked at maintenance company charges and there is no charge mentioned in the break down that they will be responsible for shared drains maintenance

I have a shared sewer. The manhole cover is right outside my back door! It’s very old Victorian pipes and serves several houses. Very occasionally it used to block, but never overflow ( hasn’t happened at all since the childminder moved out 5 years ago!) I used to call Anglian water and they would come out the same day in a big lorry and blast it with a high pressure thing. It didn’t make any mess and took about 10 mins. It was free because it was several houses not just mine. It’s really quite common I wouldn’t worry, I mean every 5th house on that road must have one?!

@statetrooperstacey

I have a shared sewer. The manhole cover is right outside my back door! It’s very old Victorian pipes and serves several houses. Very occasionally it used to block, but never overflow ( hasn’t happened at all since the childminder moved out 5 years ago!) I used to call Anglian water and they would come out the same day in a big lorry and blast it with a high pressure thing. It didn’t make any mess and took about 10 mins. It was free because it was several houses not just mine. It’s really quite common I wouldn’t worry, I mean every 5th house on that road must have one?!

Thats really good to know how easy it can be. thank you