Posts Tagged ‘Mains’

In England new regulations scheduled to go live in 2011 will relieve an estimated half of the housing stock of the onerous task of repairing worn out drains. This unexpected benefit is largely unknown by the vast majority of home owners and occupiers.

In England there is a category distinction between sewers built before or after 1937. Sewers dating from after 1937, and that only serve your own home albeit that the drain line crosses somebody else’s land, are “private” or “lateral drains”. On the other hand if your house was constructed before 1^st October 1937 and your drains are shared, serving two or more homes, then that drain line is a “public” sewer (a “section 24 sewer”).

Phased in from April 2011 this new proposal takes into public ownership all privately owned sewers and lateral drains (the bit outside of your plot boundaries).

Some housing will be connected to a private pumping station arrangement (before ultimate connection to the public mains sewer) and these properties must await further phasing announcements based upon Sewerage Authority inspection results. Also sewers that carry only surface water will transfer at a later date, yet to be announced.

It is stated that about 200,000 kilometres of private drain lines will be taken into public ownership (the Water and Sewerage Companies).

What many people do not realise when they buy housing is this potential problem area. Unless drains are tested/inspected by a specialist Drainage Contractor no definitive comment can be made on whether such drains are functional and it good condition. The repair or renewal cost of private drainage is very expensive, despite new repair techniques that do away, in some cases, with the need to physically dig up the old drains.

Currently the Water and Sewerage Companies are already liable for over 300,000 kilometres of public drains and so this is a very significant change and one that has consequences for all home owners. Yes, you’ve guessed it; a hike of about 7.5 pence per week (to about 23 pence) in the sewerage section of your utility bills.

As most properties have unique drainage system designs because of our diverse style and age of housing in England, most owners will not know the significance of the distinctions between the various drain line types and definitions. Indeed, in many cases you cannot tell unless a CCTV scan is completed.

We all saw the summer floods in 2007: we all know that the over-intensive house building program has created vast areas of water free land that was traditionally “flood plain” land thus increasing the chances of future estate flooding: we all see that water table heights have changed in our villages and towns and that this manifests is multiple and sometimes strange ways.

Whether these changes are simply due to changes in climate as opposed to global warming is not yet fully understood. What is known is that if you last out until April next year (2011) your expected massive bill for drainage works may not be quite as bad as you first thought.

The upshot of all this is that anybody buying housing now, and up-to-April-2011, needs to consider that if they have problems an educated decision will be needed on whether they should make-do and wait until mid-2011.

However, it could be absolutely essential to repair straight away for other more serious reasons. For example, if drains are left leaking next to house foundations then a real risk of house subsidence is created. In this example your Buildings Insurance Company could suggest that your pre-meditated inaction means any future claim may be refuted leaving you without funds to rebuild or repair your home.

So, on the one hand Government are taking one headache away from you whilst, for some, it could create a dilemma about a decision to repair/replace drains or to wait.

AUTHORS NOTE – My own home has “pitch-fibre” 1960’s drains that have not stood the test of time. They block easily and have a cross-section deformation that could break or collapse at any time. I am taking a wait-and-see approach as my drains are not leaking (yet) but I have to carefully monitor them to ensure they have not degraded further.

AUTHORS NOTE – When commissioning House Surveys the Surveyor will flush house-ware and also lift inspection Chamber covers to see flow-rates and for any sign of blockages. If the home is subsiding, or if tree roots are too close to foundations and drains, are the substance of advice given but for actual drain-line condition NO SUBSTITUTE exists for a CCTV (Closed Circuit Television “survey”) by a local Drainage Contractor. Your own House Surveyor will not test drains.

This very much depends on what level of inspection is being completed and the complexity of the property.

A good Inspector we have risk and database researched your property before he/she arrives. This process should have raised various questions that will probably be added to the Inspectors normal list of standard queries.

Any Inspector will need to know the history of the land and buildings. This broadly splits into the following areas:-

• Tenure/Legal
• Planning and Building Control
• Limitations or special instructions (imposed upon or for the Inspector)
• Risks
• Documentation, Certificates and Service records
• DIY
• Insurance Claims
• Premises age and the dates of material changes/problems/events

So, the Inspector will not want to be bothered by your Pets/Dogs. Similarly young children may best be taken to neighbours/friends. A tidy environment is always easier the inspect than an untidy and unclean home.

The Inspector will want to get at and into all rooms and areas and so unlocking the garage, shed and side gate will all be appreciated. Moving the car off drainage inspection chambers is also a good idea; as would be taking the car out of the garage or car-port.

If you can take copies of important documents these will be invaluable to the Inspector but it is our experience he/she can just as easily take photographs of such documents.

So what questions and/or documents are important?

1. How old is the house?
2. Is it Listed (which Grade), in a Conservation Area or in a Smoke Control Area?
3. Are any Council Plans/Proposals known of that may affect the house or its plot?
4. Boiler age/installation and service/repair records.
5. Is mains Gas available and metered?
6. Are all other mains services connected and metered?
7. What private services are connected: do they pass to and from only public land OR do they pass over/under private land (and are they shared)?
8. Date of electrical system tests or of re-wiring/alterations.
9. Date of double glazing installation (FENSA certified or under Building Control?).
10. Planning Permissions and/or Building Regulation Approvals.
11. Who designed and constructed (and when) the Conservatory.
12. Lease details.
13. Any off-site buildings or parking facilities? Full details needed.
14. Do any off-site shared facilities
15. Management provisions, fees and charges + name and contacts details.
16. Tree Preservation Orders?
17. Trees removed: and when?
18. Have any Insurance Claims, Party Wall Act Notifications, Neighbour or Boundary Disputes happened – full details/outcomes needed.
19. Extensions and/or improvement or conversion plans, dates, descriptions.
20. Inserted insulation? Type, when and by whom?
21. Have the drains ever blocked, been repaired or renewed? Are any chamber covers hidden from view?
22. What works have YOU done, OR have been done by non-professional or non-specialists?
23. What fixtures and fittings form part of the purchase price and will be staying in the home when the sellers move out?
24. Which site boundaries do you believe to be yours?

Anything you can do to provide certainty to your answers would be invaluable to the Inspector. Remember that anything you can produce to help the Inspector here will probably go into his/her Report and both their client and that clients legal team will have one less thing to worry about – if you take the time and effort to fully cooperate here you are rewarded with less uncertainty at a later date.

Much of the above may be included in the Home Information Pack: at the time of writing these words it is our experience most Sellers, Solicitors and Estate Agents are not bothering to request these details are produced “up front” and so the existing marketing/legal system is not entering in to the spirit of HIPs: in our opinion this attitude is to the detriment of all home buying transactions.