Water/drainage search reveals property I'm selling doesn't drain into public sewer. What now?

[Thumbsnet]

I'm in the process of selling my property. It's been almost 3 months now since I accepted the buyer's offer (who is a cash buyer). Both solicitors have been so slow.

I've just received the enquiries back and one of the questions says that the Water and Drainage Search has revealed that surface water on the property I'm selling does not drain into a public sewer. I then have to confirm that I have sole or shared responsibility for private drains serving the property.

Next, I am asked to confirm if the private sewer is subject to a Section 104 adoption agreement and provide a copy of the same, and to confirm when I last carried out maintenance of the private sewers and the relevant costs.

Finally, I have to advise the arrangements for the disposal of surface water.

This all relates to a property that I bought as a new-build in 2011 from Taylor Wimpey.

This all sounds odd to me as it did not come up when I purchased the property.

Can anyone advise what I have to do? Should I now also arrange for a Water and Drainage search to ensure that the buyer's search results are correct?

Any advice is appreciated, thank you.

I was hoping to complete after this and this one thing has thrown a spanner in the works and is starting to make me think that this sale could end up going on for months.

Hopefully, this is something that can be sorted out quickly.

You probably have a soakaway ? Check your plans which may have been provided to you/your solicitor at purchase.

See if your local planning site has copies of the house / development plans from when you purchased?

Intact the local water company and see what they reckon. However if it’s true the silver lining is you’ll be owed a refund of a proportion of your bills if they’ve been charging you for surface water drainage (which is the default).

the water company will know about the section 104 (normally only applies to houses over a certain age if more than one property drains into it). So won’t count for a 2011 house.

id be amazed if a house that new doesn’t drain into surface water….I think it’s more likely the water company haven’t updated their plans correctly. They should come out and inspect free of charge if necessary l

Have you got anything in your paperwork from when you purchased that covers this? Maybe a contract report? Failing that, could you ask the solicitor who acted when you purchased? The paper file will probably have been destroyed but maybe there might be something on the digital file

Sorry I was wrong about it being unlikely with a modern house. Seems it’s more likely. https://www.surfacewaterclaims.co.uk/soakaways#:~:text=Over%20the%20last%2020%20years,run%20off%20into%20the%20main

I did actually used to be a sewerage engineer but stopped in 2001 whichnis when this legislation came into force so didn’t know about the change 😁

Two weeks have almost passed I am now in a position where the Buyer's solicitor has requested that I produce a s104 and it is proving impossible. Can anyone provide any advice?? Initially, I was told by the local council to contact the developer, who was telling me to contact my water supplier and round and round it went.

The water supplier has now forwarded me to the correct department where someone has informed me that, although they are in possession of the s104, they are only obliged to share it with the developer. I now have asked the developer to request the s104 on my behalf, and they forwarded me to their legal team who have not made any effort to contact me.

This is driving me crazy because the buyer and I were almost ready to exchange when their solicitor made this additional enquiry. Is there any law that I can quote here or policy which I can impose upon the developer or water supplier here to force them to help me.

I find it unbelievable that there is no system in place for obtaining these documents to progress the sale of a property. For more context, the property I am selling (which was a new-build when purchased) is over a decade old so both the developer and law firm I used to purchase the property, have not kept any files on their system.

Any advice or thoughts please?

We bought our house last year and this came up as a query, vendor didn’t know anything so she asked her neighbor who has lived in this development since it was built in 2002 and said it has soakways
we just took that as confirmation as vendor was not able to produce any other proof that our solicitor was asking , we told our solicitor we will take a risk and buy it
we are happy with drainage etc at the end of the day this is a new build and we thought it is unlikely there won’t be drainage when four other people are happily living here in this development 😅

If this has really become a sticking point phone a drain survey company. They can come out and put a camera down and provide a condition report and plan of the pipework which will also come with a full movie to show the buyers. This will solve your issue and is not that expensive. The last one we had done was about £250 plus vat.
I have little doubt they will find a plastic pallet type soakaway in that age of property.

I would ask your solicitor to contact the legal team at the supplier. Less likely to ignore an assertive letter from a solicitor, maybe?

The buyers solicitor is being ridiculous. Who bothers with this? You accept the sewers are adopted and it’s not a private arrangement as in septic tank and soak away. It’s a new estate so why make a fuss about this? Very odd. Never been asked for such detail.

They have brought it up in the enquiries because the water and drainage search result says my property is not connected to the public sewer and therefore surface water has nowhere to drain into. They're asking what I have in place, such as a septic tank, to deal with it.

I have lived in it for 11-12 years with no issues. This was also not highlighted by the lawyer who acted on my behalf when purchasing - coincidentally the same firm I'm using to sell (they claim that they no longer have any details of my purchase on file given it was over a decade ago).

So has the water company adopted the sewers? I expect they have. You know this if you have a bill from them.

This is Thames Water advice. It’s straightforward. The searches are probably a mistake and you should give the solicitor the bill. If you don’t have a bill for sewage, it’s not mains sewage connected. .We are not connected and pay for water only. If you pay for sewerage, you are connected. If you have a septic tank you would know where it was!! It needs cleaning periodically. Your planning dept might have detailed plans of your estate. Taylor Wimpey would know if the sewers were adopted too but first port of calm is your bill. What are you paying for?

You could get a sewer survey done!

Check if you've got a French Drain or Soakaway.

OP - Storm water is unlikely to run to sewer on a property of this age as this has been discouraged by water authorities for years. You'll have a soakaway somewhere instead. However, this doesn't mean that your sewers haven't been adopted and I'd be surprised if they haven't. Quick check would be to look at your water bill. It will list water supply and disposal separately. If disposal is listed, then the system has been adopted.

Forgot to attach it!

Agree surface water should not go into drains.

Has your solicitor suggested an indemnity insurance to cover this? We had an issue with a new build we bought as second owner as no one knows who owns the land our garage is on as it's in a compound! Apparently this would cover any costs arising from future issues it cost a few hundred pounds and our seller paid for it

In the end, I managed to obtain a S104, however, the buyer's solicitor must know where surface water is draining to and won't budge until it is answered. I'm certain it's a soak away as I definitely don't have a septic tank. How can I know for certain that I have a soak away?

Try asking here OP. Then you should get some answers tomorrow.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/house-buying-renting-selling

There is also some helpful info about finding soakaways, here:
ukdnwaterflow.co.uk/what-is-a-soakaway/

@Thumbsnet I have found lots of advice on line re what to look for. It’s possible you need a drain survey to tell you what the system is. Massive storm in a teacup though.

Basicslky you need to follow the drains from the drainpipes. Where they go?

DH says Environment Agency or LA should have approved the drainage plans for surface water. So into the ground, piped to a “pond” to collect water, to a ditch or water course or pumped. Not into foul sewer.

There are two types of sewer systems - "combined" sewers take both foul drainage (toilets, sinks etc) and surface water (from roofs, road runoff etc) into one pipe and then there are "separate" systems which have the foul and surface water in two separate pipes. The separate system is preferable because it prevents the issues of sewage spilling when the drains become overloaded in times of heavy rain (see all the recent press about overflow discharges) and tend to be common on newer build properties. So you definitely won't have a septic tank because that would be for foul sewage only. Your foul will go into the water company sewers and the surface water probably goes into a soakaway / SUDS pond or even straight into a watercourse.

Into the ground is favoured now but lots of estates have collecting ponds. Depressions of grass fenced off. Few are pumped but everyone is keen to avoid surface water adding to flood water in areas likely to flood. Someone must have approved the plans for surface water drainage and a detailed scheme worked up by engineers.

Get a full CCTV drainage survey. A company like Metro Rod will do this day in day out.

This isn't entirely true. A property built in 2011 will be on a separate system and it's quite likely that only the foul sewers are water company ownership and the surface water discharges straight to the environment and has never been adopted.