being on the end of a row of off the mains houses i have a clay sewer pipe with 2 manholes running across the back of my house – about 6 foot from my current foundations –

It goes from there to a large offsite communual septic tank as shown in my deeds as being 1/8th owned by the 8 houses in the row – its a bout 400m away in the farmers field with a fence around. We dont pay sewarage on our council tax either.

Who the hell do i need to speak to for guidance to move this sewer – or to build over the top- i already have a building over the top of it but it was done by previous owner and doesnt cover any of the manholes(one where i join the sewer and 1 where the pipe changes direction to go to the septic tank.

At a guess id just need written agreement from the other 8 home owners?

Any ideas ?

Who owns/empties the septic tank?

Different scenario, but we needed build over agreement from our water company when we went over the drains (which run to the end of the row of houses and then into the main sewer.

Does the sewer serve your house too? Are you sure its a septic tank? It could be a package treatment works. It’s likely communal ownership on each section as it passes through. Theres often one property, or a management company that has responsibility. This is often in, or associated with, your deeds.

Another lead would be to speak to the person that arranges to get it pumped out/serviced.

So – Yes its septic tank – its detailed in the deeds – yes it serves my house.

Its the council that arrange the emptying of the septic tank once a year with a private co then bill us 1/8th

1 of the houses is still council.

I guess i can speak to the council see what they say.

Privately owned so you’d need to consult the other 7 owners.
I would be very wary of building over the manholes – they are there for a reason. You may never need to access the junctions, but if you did how would you do so with a building on top?
Diverting is probably the way to go but might be a bit of a project ….. diagram would be helpful.

1 of the houses is still council.

Ahhhh. Need to speak to the council as well as the other 6 owners then. ‘Might’ be a bit more complicated. That said, the planning permission for the new sewer might cover it. I doubt council would let you build over the manholes of a sewer they partly own.

I would speak to the local authority in the first instance. If one of the houses is council owned it maybe an adopted sewer in that case a build over agreement would be needed.

Another one would be, if you are wanting to divert, this could be v costly, and a bit of a logistical mare. I.e the other 7 houses aint gonna stop sh!tting for the c1.5 weeks whilst you get the construction done. Where does the sh!t go?

Construct the new drainage then quickly connect the new stuff?

Sharkbait has reminded me that I forgot to add that part of the build over stipulation was to move the manhole from where it was to outside the footprint of the extension. Again appreciate that my case is different, but worth bearing in mind.

sharkbait – thats pretty much what i thought – i just thought i would consult the oracle before getting the builders in for quotations so i have half an idea of whats required before they try their luck …..

In an ideal world i would divert as you say – how ever – on what planet does it take 1.5 weeks to put in drainage. 20ft of drainage pipe and a couple of manholes.

a diagram might – but imagine a row of houses where the pipe runs down paraelel 6 ft from the houses down the back – with a manhole where each houses waste Ts in and then i have a second manhole where it makes a 45 degree turn to the septic tank inthe field across the road.

on what planet does it take 1.5 weeks to put in drainage. 20ft of drainage pipe and a couple of manholes.

Indeed.
Construct the new manholes, lay the new sewer (to councils spec probably) then lastly connect new sewer to the existing pipe from your land to the septic tank and then to the sewer from houses 2-8.
You’d have to put the manholes on your land so the location of the existing sewer and your proposed extension would be important – sharp bends ain’t cool!

I thought the water board had all responsibility for pipes these days even on someones property?

I’d guess you’re almost certainly going to have to divert the pipes and have suitable manholes/rodding points outside of your new extension.

The water board will no doubt have to send a camera down once you’ve done the work to check it out, charging you a pretty penny too if it’s anything like our work. The builder said they don’t have actual plans of the pipes in private ground so bascially the charge is allow them to graciously map the pipe network for themselves.

I thought the general consensus was to just bridge it and have air-tight manhole covers inside for access.

Presumably you want to build extension a fair width of the garden/house, so will there be much room left to build a diversion on your land?

I thought the water board had all responsibility for pipes these days even on someones property?

Landowners responsibility for everything as of boundary IIRC. Hence the dodgy “insure your pipes” letters they might occasionally send.

Anyway, its a private sewer, so its all down to whether its a shared ownership of the sewer or whether the council maintain ownership or whatever any covenants on the property deed might say.

STATO – Member
I thought the general consensus was to just bridge it and have air-tight manhole covers inside for access.

Presumably you want to build extension a fair width of the garden/house, so will there be much room left to build a diversion on your land?

This.
Few years ago now but this was the solution to our extension. All pipes had to be laid/shrouded in concrete, can’t remember all the details. Council planning/drains dept, pains in the rear locally!!
Drain cover

You shouldn’t need permission from anyone as the drainage is private, i.e. its not the responsibility of a Water Company.

However, i would certainly speak to Building Control to make sure they are happy with you building over the sewer run.

A local drainage / civils contractor would be a good port of call for advise and costs.

He would need permission from the people who use the sewer i.e. the other 7 houses one of which is owned by the council.

Bear in mind the water companies are having to adopt the majority of private sewers and pumping stations in October next year (in England at least). A lot of surveying is going on at the moment

He would need permission from the people who use the sewer i.e. the other 7 houses one of which is owned by the council.

Oddly enough exactly this has happened in my street. On the other side of the road a house is being refurbed and the builder has just moved the shared sewer to make way for an extension (in Victorian terraced houses the shared sewer runs across the back of the houses and then down a shared passageway).

He didn’t tell anyone, and just did it, which has upset a few of his neighbours.

TR – we had EXACTLY this problem when we built our extension, we have six houses upstream of us of which two are council owned. The only difference in our case is that it flowed into a sewer rather than septic tank but the ownership was presumably the same (the pipe isn’t mentioned in the deeds but is orphaned from it’s ex-LHA days and definitely not Scottish Waters).

Scottish Water didn’t give a monkeys so long as we built any new connections and manholes to spec and gave a before and after survey to prove it wasn’t just bodged on. Small amount of settlement in the new manhole but nothing that gave concern.

We didn’t need anyone elses permission nor ask, with the proviso that any problems would be on our (builders) heads.

The solution was originally to encase the pipes in pea gravel with a lintel at each end however the pipe we thought was the sewers turned out to be an old gas main. We eventually had to lay a pad foundation (does what it says, helps spread the load) as it actually ran right along the back wall, again this wasn’t a problem but did add a bit to the cost of the founds. Can send you some of our architects drawing to help give you an idea if you like, plus the Scottish Water correspondance.

as it goes to a septic tank it isn’t anything to do with the water company and will not be adopted

Good point bnd, I should have read the OP properly!