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 ?

I was just told by my surveyor that I'm only responsible for my pipes to drain, not the shared part that runs along all the gardens in the terrace.

They don't "adopt it", honestly, you're getting yourself confused. They are responsible in law. Talk to your conveyancer.

Yes it’s the water board who pay if there is a blockage when it’s shared. Mine is a 1980’s mid terrace of 4 and I’m second along the “ drain chain”
Drain on front parking space. My neighbour , number in the drain chain has very cleverly blocked paved his driveway with “x marks the spot”, he knows which fake paving to lift if needed!
Only blocked twice so far in the 15 years I’ve been here and both times blasted free of charge very quickly.
Definitely didn’t factor in my decision to buy
As someone else said, loads of other things could go wrong.

Neighbour is number 1 that should say

If this is the only thing stopping you buying a house then I'd say it's probably going to restrict your house options, particularly in new build properties. The water company (not water board, they haven't existed for decades!) is responsible for any length of shared pipework so whilst they will cover the cost of any blockages that still doesn't stop your neighbour flushing stuff down the loo that they shouldn't which risks sewage backing up your connection.
www.ofwat.gov.uk/nonhouseholds/supply-and-standards/public-and-private-sewers/
I'm fairly sure that new build sewers do still need to be formally adopted by the water co. www.water.org.uk/sewerage-sector-guidance-approved-documents/

Yes I meant water company

No.I wouldn't buy....I have shared sewage pipe....flooded our patio once...neighbours putting tampons down.

update : response from developer that anything on my land will be my responsibility. When it goes off my land then its Severn trent's responsibility.

I dont know what to do

@Savemefromukweather

update : response from developer that anything on my land will be my responsibility. When it goes off my land then its Severn trent's responsibility.

I dont know what to do

Ask the fucking conveyancer, not the developer! How would he know?

Also, phone the water company and ask them. Are you sure you're mature enough to be buying a house??

@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

Which year was that?

Are you in England?

This is not my first purchase . its third property purchase and its first time I am buying new build . there are lots of things on new builds which are different than old builds

i have asked conveyancer i have to go through the whole process to know more. So i have to reserve the property and then let my solicitor dig up. the reason i asked here to see whether anyone in new build would be able to shed light

The links that emmathedilema posted are right. You are only responsible for pipes on your property that only have your sewage. As soon as another person’s sewer pipe crosses onto your land or there are multiple occupants worth of sewage in, it becomes the responsibility of the water company. When I worked on this when it was first introduced (since moved areas so things might have changed slightly), new developments had a date, the vesting date, when the construction would be complete and the transfer of assets (sewers) would transfer from the developer to the water company. The developers have been dealing with this for 10 years, for them not to answer you properly suggests they either don’t have a clue what they’re doing or are trying to fob you off. The develop services team at the water company might be able to tell you more information about when it’ll transfer from developer to water company ownership but it depends on what information the developers have sent through. The developers should be able to tell you very clearly when the transfer of assets happens. They’ll have other assets that they’ll be transferring too and they should be able to tell you all of this information.

If having a shared sewer on your property is a deal breaker, you need to be trying to buy an end of terrace (although you’ll have to take a guess as to which end is the beginning and which is the end) or a detached that is quite separated from the neighbours. Even then there’s no guarantee. Most properties will have a shared sewer on them, which is why the legislation was brought in as customers were being lumped with the bill for something that 4 houses up caused. You shouldn’t build over any sewer network, shared or otherwise but apart from that it’s just luck as to whether your neighbours are going to put stuff they shouldn’t down there.

This is not a new build issue. My house is 1964 and has this.

New builds do have their own issues but this is not one of them. This issue probably crops up on about 25% of houses.

I know more on this subject than I would like and when trying to understand responsibilities found this diagram really helpful.
www.ofwat.gov.uk/nonhouseholds/supply-and-standards/responsibility-supply-pipes/

First if all massive thank you to all for your contribution . Its not terraced house its detached property and the most expensive property so far in the estate. my point was if i am spending that much money do i really need that inconvenience and hassle for looking after everyone s drains . council and water board do put lot of restrictions on new estates eg adopting roads . surface water drainage and maintenance charges . If water company will be responsible for all that why developer put all five detached houses on the road (they are not cul de sac which i could have understand )and bring their fouls drains to particular plot driveway to meet and then from there it goes to road drain , they could have done it straight from every property to the road , there must be catch unless water board want to adopt only road drains or it could be cost efficient for developer .

There is no harm in asking questions if i am not sure . Those who say i should know all that but new builds estates come with lot of unknown risks .Public authorities dont want to deal with them thats why there are so many maintenance charges

The water COMPANY are not responsible for road drainage, that’s the local authority responsibility. Like the foul sewers, they will also need to go through a process of adoption by the local authority. Don’t assume that they will have been adopted when you first move in, particularly if the development is still under construction.

Developers do things for one reason only - money. They will have worked out the costs and done it the cheapest way.

I don't think anyone said you should know, but people have given you the information and made suggestions and you've done something else and complained you didn't get what you need.

You really need to speak to a conveyancing solicitor about it. The developer is not your friend (though it's weird they told you the thing that might stop you buying). I know it's tricky with a new build because of the reservation process and not wanting to spend on a solicitor before you reserve but this seems like a false economy.

@VanGoghsDog

Developers do things for one reason only - money. They will have worked out the costs and done it the cheapest way.

I don't think anyone said you should know, but people have given you the information and made suggestions and you've done something else and complained you didn't get what you need.

You really need to speak to a conveyancing solicitor about it. The developer is not your friend (though it's weird they told you the thing that might stop you buying). I know it's tricky with a new build because of the reservation process and not wanting to spend on a solicitor before you reserve but this seems like a false economy.

i have instructed solicitor to see if i can get some proper answers . i have not complained. Majority of you said it will be adopted and developer said opposite so thats quite tricky. Anyways hopefully we can get more answers. House buying is such a stressful process, some things i wanted to clarify upfront.

The document linked to by someone above (did you read it?), says:

"3.1. Design and Construction Guidance

All Sewerage Companies will adopt sewers complying with the requirements of the DCG"

So ask the developer if they have complied with those standards. Having private sewers is unusual and definitely to be avoided, but you'd have a septic tank, so you'd certainly know if that was the case.

@Grumpyunleashed

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.

This is correct

www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/water/water-supply/sewerage/who-is-responsible-for-repairing-drains-and-sewers/

@TipsySquirrel

The links that emmathedilema posted are right. You are only responsible for pipes on your property that only have your sewage. As soon as another person’s sewer pipe crosses onto your land or there are multiple occupants worth of sewage in, it becomes the responsibility of the water company. When I worked on this when it was first introduced (since moved areas so things might have changed slightly), new developments had a date, the vesting date, when the construction would be complete and the transfer of assets (sewers) would transfer from the developer to the water company. The developers have been dealing with this for 10 years, for them not to answer you properly suggests they either don’t have a clue what they’re doing or are trying to fob you off. The develop services team at the water company might be able to tell you more information about when it’ll transfer from developer to water company ownership but it depends on what information the developers have sent through. The developers should be able to tell you very clearly when the transfer of assets happens. They’ll have other assets that they’ll be transferring too and they should be able to tell you all of this information.

If having a shared sewer on your property is a deal breaker, you need to be trying to buy an end of terrace (although you’ll have to take a guess as to which end is the beginning and which is the end) or a detached that is quite separated from the neighbours. Even then there’s no guarantee. Most properties will have a shared sewer on them, which is why the legislation was brought in as customers were being lumped with the bill for something that 4 houses up caused. You shouldn’t build over any sewer network, shared or otherwise but apart from that it’s just luck as to whether your neighbours are going to put stuff they shouldn’t down there.

Thank you for detailed input . this has certainly help

[quote emmathedilemma]If this is the only thing stopping you buying a house then I'd say it's probably going to restrict your house options, particularly in new build properties. The water company (not water board, they haven't existed for decades!) is responsible for any length of shared pipework so whilst they will cover the cost of any blockages that still doesn't stop your neighbour flushing stuff down the loo that they shouldn't which risks sewage backing up your connection.
www.ofwat.gov.uk/nonhouseholds/supply-and-standards/public-and-private-sewers/
I'm fairly sure that new build sewers do still need to be formally adopted by the water co. www.water.org.uk/sewerage-sector-guidance-approved-documents/[/quote]
Thank you . i read all the information and put all information together to be enquired. i ll find out soon and will update

No, this wouldn't bother me. As said, unless there's some specific reason why not (private sewers or whatever) you are only responsible for the bit of your sewer where it purely handles your household waste only. As soon as it is 'mixed' with someone elses - the water company are responsible for any blockages/maintenance.

Building on top of isn't much of an issue either - there are fairly straight forward ways to keep existing sewers through foundation trenches & if you are digging foundations it's not to difficult to re-route anyway.

I'd be far more concerned where this house sits in elevation in relation to the others - you don't want to be the person that suffers surcharging manholes/potentially overflowing downstairs toilets in the time of a blockage/issue!!

@Savemefromukweather

update : response from developer that anything on my land will be my responsibility. When it goes off my land then its Severn trent's responsibility.

I dont know what to do

Yes and No, you are responsible for pipes on your property, water, gas, drains, and if it was just your drain pipe from the house to the connection then you would be responsible however in the event of a blockage of the drainage where this is a shared drain, where all the connections meet, it’s is down to the water company to unblock, a this will affect multiple properties, modern pipes are plastic and assuming installed correctly are less likely to give problems over old pipe work, most lids are well sealed it’s unlikely you’ll ever get any smell unless your lids off

Unfortunately its one of those where you are getting different answers because all cases are different.
The developer may just say stuff to get the sale but the legal position can only be clarified if you ask your conveyancer to pick up on that point. The thoroughness of the answer will depend on them - if they are doing it on a fixed fee - will they really get into it the detail and follow up on it.
The chances of it happening - depends on the quality of the pipework - diameters are probably legally set but angles and flows will be affected by how well the pipes are laid by the contractor that has that bit of the job in their remit. Also behaviour of your neighbours - who knows if they will know or care about the odd baby wipe, bit of cooking fat - but I would always err on the side of them being idiots!
As you are finding out - there is never a perfect house at the right price - there will always be a compromise somewhere. It feels from the tone of your messages that you are feeling backed into a corner on this house - you don't really like it, but it must be good because it costs more than the others, there are no other ones available...