Drainage Plans - Developer Not Playing Ball

[Cold Fusion]

Thanks for the entertaining thread, as someone who works in construction this has made my morning

When buying the house, we were told there was NO drains visible on our land

No you were likely told there is no Adoptable Drains on your property (Adoptable drains are those managed by the Statutory Authority in your area, in the south this is Thames Water, but note this has nothing to do with who you pay money to for a water supply or waste water).

We were told that all drains are in the street, not on our land.

Yes in most cases they will attempt to put Adoptable Drains in the public domain, but this is not always possible and therefore Adoptable drains can occur on private property that the Statutory Authority would need access too. In most housing estates they will be in the highway outside, and the conveyancing would bring this up when you bought the house. If you really are concerned you can pay for a search yourself.

Moved into the house, drains are visible on our land.

These will be Private drainage which serve your property and likely any property in your row (assuming its a semi-detached or a terrace) These inspection chambers will allow access and maintenance to be carried out on the private drainage. These will usually be located in changes in direction or when picking up multiple connections.

Therefore, we were either told the wrong thing by the sales team OR the developer screwed up and put visible drains on our land

No this is likely a communication breakdown between "what you thought they said to you" and "what you thought they meant by it", you will always have private drainage on your property and this will likely included inspection chambers.

As for the cover and frame, if the frame is not fixed to the inspection chamber sections then this is an error, you should contact persimmon and log a defect with their maintenance team. Also when located in Soft Landscaping areas (as appears to be the case from your photos) the frame for the cover is not concreted in (as per OSMA's standard detail)

Hope this helps

 

[Jamauk]

To add to this there are a total of five drain covers on my property, all of which drain from my property, no sewage from another property runs through mine. The covers serve a useful purpose in un-blocking the drains if ever it were needed.

 

[mattyg]

I was using a generalisation that I assumed most would understand, clearly not lol.

Where does water run down your street? Down the road through the drain grate? No, you'd say it runs into the drain.

I even spoke to 20 other people about this on a persimmon bashing group They all said "Yes, I have a drain that I didn't know about slap bang in my garden". They didn't say "Yes, I have a drain cover that I didn't know about slap bang in my garden."

Yes it runs into the drains. It doesn't run into the drains via the inspection cover though.

Now if you have an inspection cover slap bang in the middle of the garden I'd probably be kicking off too. Wouldn't want little timmy to trip on it whilst playing football.


But what your complaining about isn't a drain. Its an inspection cover. So if the developer said you wont have any visible drains then ok

But you seem to be ignoring the other obvious drain in your second picture. The one that looks like its connected to the boiler PRV

 

[Aruffell]

I don't get what the issue is though. If it's something as simple as a drain cover, if it's in a paved bit of the property just get a matching cover - block paving has recessed covers so it matches with the rest of the paving and doesn't really stand out, if it's in an area to have grass on it just put a plant pot on it or something.

The area around it was landscaped, and the drain has been "placed" on at an angle so it was about 2 inches higher than the ground and stuck out on one of the edges, we've now cleared the landscaped area as we are going to put slate down and can't because of the level and how they aren't fitted. We only discovered them not being fitted after removing the bark chippings.

Sounds like the developer didn't concrete/attach your inspection chamber edge because you were planning to supply your own to hide under your choice of landscaping so they couldn't be seen on your property. You'd probably be complaining more if there was a nice concrete ring around it sealing it in.

Get it fixed yourself, then stick a bird bath on top of it to hide it. Job done.

Drains on property is a thing, some sites will utilise underground soakaway chambers either on shared land or driveways which require manhole covers, some developers will use the edge of a property boundary for drainage instead of digging up a road, again leading to manhole covers on what looks like people's property but is also shared land. Neither of these are yours, you have inspection chambers which pretty much every detached house more than 1m away from a pavement will have.

See above. They literally placed them there and then spread bark chippings around.

The main point though, is we were told "you don't have any unsightly drains on your property, so that will be nice". Clearly we do, so does anyone know how we can view the plans?

 

[Aruffell]

Thanks for the entertaining thread, as someone who works in construction this has made my morning



No you were likely told there is no Adoptable Drains on your property (Adoptable drains are those managed by the Statutory Authority in your area, in the south this is Thames Water, but note this has nothing to do with who you pay money to for a water supply or waste water).


Yes in most cases they will attempt to put Adoptable Drains in the public domain, but this is not always possible and therefore Adoptable drains can occur on private property that the Statutory Authority would need access too. In most housing estates they will be in the highway outside, and the conveyancing would bring this up when you bought the house. If you really are concerned you can pay for a search yourself.


These will be Private drainage which serve your property and likely any property in your row (assuming its a semi-detached or a terrace) These inspection chambers will allow access and maintenance to be carried out on the private drainage. These will usually be located in changes in direction or when picking up multiple connections.



No this is likely a communication breakdown between "what you thought they said to you" and "what you thought they meant by it", you will always have private drainage on your property and this will likely included inspection chambers.

As for the cover and frame, if the frame is not fixed to the inspection chamber sections then this is an error, you should contact persimmon and log a defect with their maintenance team.

Hope this helps

Nope, as at least 5 others in the estate were told the same. "No visible drains on your property, as you can see from the plans, all of them are in the streets".

That's exactly what we were all told.

 

[ubersonic]

Hopefully that is at an IQ level that most of GD can understand.

If it makes you feel better I'm sure most of us understood it from the first post, it's just a few "specials" who were a bit slow.

 

[Steeps]

See above. They literally placed them there and then spread bark chippings around.

The main point though, is we were told "you don't have any unsightly drains on your property, so that will be nice". Clearly we do, so does anyone know how we can view the plans?

Unless all your bathrooms/kitchen/utility are on the same wall within the house it's pretty much a given there will need to be an inspection chamber somewhere for all your pipes to consolidate before heading towards the main sewer. Feel free to cap it off with a top you can landscape over or leave that one there with a plant pot on top/shiny garden ornament. Just remember where it is with your own drawing so if you have a blockage you can get someone in to inspect it.

Your developer is right though, as I mentioned above some estates they do have shared drainage on property and surface water tanks which sometimes have access under your driveway/garden, you do not have these on your land.

 

[Cold Fusion]

Aruffell,

Okay now we are getting somewhere,

So its more about the aesthetics of having your landscaping area have a "unsightly" cover in the middle of it? and being told when you bought off plan that you were under the impression it would not be the case.

Unfortunately you were misled, it would always be the case you would have inspection chamber covers on your property as this is now the standard for drainage construction for the past ~20 years. Although I agree these can look a bit 'gash' (Technical Term) they are unavoidable these days.

Depending on your plans for the landscaping i suggest you find a nice potted plant and place it on top to disguise it or alternatively you could get a recessed cover at your own expense and fill it with top soil and grow grass / plants in it. http://www.wavin.co.uk/web/products.../osmad-450mm-sq-recesd-cframe-25kn-ds-0-5.htm

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/kr774486/hide-manhole-cover-ideas/

Hope this helps

 

[sanaxe1]

See above. They literally placed them there and then spread bark chippings around.

The main point though, is we were told "you don't have any unsightly drains on your property, so that will be nice". Clearly we do, so does anyone know how we can view the plans?

So they were right then, there wasn't any unsightly drains as it was covered by bark. It wasn't until you dug the bark up it became "unsightly"

 

[Aruffell]

So they were right then, there wasn't any unsightly drains as it was covered by bark. It wasn't until you dug the bark up it became "unsightly"

Nope, the bark was around it. It was always just sticking up out of the bark and was never covered.

 

[touch]

Clearly we do, so does anyone know how we can view the plans?

You bought a building, not the intellectual property that goes with it. You probably don't own the plans or have any legal right to see them.
Just like if you bought a computer game, you'd get a disc with an installer which allows you to play the game but you dont own any source code or design.

I'm not sure what use the plans would be to you anyway? If you're planning on some sort of legal action then you cant use the argument that "20 people on facebook said that they call it a drain". The thing you have posted photos of is not a drain in the technical sense.

 

[Irish_Tom]

I love the condescending tone like we're the stupid ones…

 

[cadmunkey]

These will be Private drainage which serve your property and likely any property in your row (assuming its a semi-detached or a terrace) These inspection chambers will allow access and maintenance to be carried out on the private drainage. These will usually be located in changes in direction or when picking up multiple connections.

Not only that, these are ALWAYS within the boundary of the property before it joins the main sewers in the road. I'm in the construction industry too, but didnt have the same patience as you Cold Fusion to give an indepth reply. He's ignored everyone anyway.

 

[DB_SamX]

Yeah, as a structural engineer who dabbles in drainage design, every property would get a inspection chamber within their property for maintenance. Granted, the location should be discreet, but not the end of the world. Most chambers can have recessed covers so that you can carry on your finish (tarmac/blockpaving/resin bound gravel) over the chamber. Not a big deal.

Agree they might have misled you, but you need it, so come to a mutual agreement with the developer.

 

[Django x2]

Right, I'm going to re-write this for the OP and hopefully we can get somewhere.

OP: We don't want any drains on our Property
Developer: LOLWTF, of course you need a drain. Where will your poop go?
OP: LOLK what I mean is, I don't want to see any drain covers
Developer: Ahh, finally, I get you. Ok sure, that's fine, all of the actual drain covers are off of your property, but you obviously have drains serving your property,

A few whiles later:
OP: OMFGLOLWTFBBQ11111 there's a drain cover in the garden
Developer: No, that's an inspection chamber for a drain, that is hidden underground.
OP: Que?
Developer: Those are a property requirement for access to clear drains. We don't fix them in, but we do provide them. As you have opted not to have a mega ££££ landscaping service, and have chosen your own route, these must remain visible to you until you have the funds and decide to landscape how you see fit
OP: OMGRAGEQUIT.......

I think we're close now.....

 

[Six6siX]

This entire issue would not exist had the home builder not connected the house to a drain in the first place.

 

[Boycey0211]

This entire issue would not exist had the home builder not connected the house to a drain in the first place.

Especially if they were clever enough to get the op to sign some sort of legally binding document stating he wanted zero drains on his property. This thread would be even more entertaining

 

[touch]

This entire issue would not exist had the home builder not connected the house to a drain in the first place.

I think the builders should solve the problem by removing all drains from OP's house.

 

[Steeps]

We got so fed up of seeing an inspection manhole cover next to our drive path we built an extension over the top of it. We were worried we might have to move house if we couldn't find a way of hiding it.

 

[Jamauk]

We got so fed up of seeing an inspection manhole cover next to our drive path we built an extension over the top of it. We were worried we might have to move house if we couldn't find a way of hiding it.

Just take the cover off and fill it with concrete, it's not like you need it, right?!