Thames Water - Buildover agreement for sewer not on my land

[chewymix]

Hi

We are in the first stages of building a rear extension on the back of our house and have been granted planning and in fact the footings are almost dug. We now discover some communications from Thames Water to our Building Inspector telling us we need to have a build over agreement for a public sewer thats within 3 meters of the extension. As the home owner i could not see how we have a sewer on our land so when i spoke to thames Water they now tell me that, as we are end of terrace, and have an alleyway down the side of the property there is in fact a sewer in there, however as its on public land we only need a build over if we are going within 1 meter of it.

We are basically doing a side return kitchen extension so we will be building within 1 meter of it however we will not be building on top of it nor will we be altering any access to that sewer. This is the first we have heard of this and we are due to have the footings inspected tomorrow and then be filled in on Thursday, now this throws a spanner in the works as they say it can take 3 weeks and naturally they want to charge me..

If the building inspector comes tomorrow and signs off the footings can we fill them in or do we have to wait for Thames Water? If the BI is happy, bearing in mind the communications have so far been between his company and Thames Water, can he allow us to fill them in and not get Thames Water involved? considering we already have signed off planning consent how come we only find out about this now?

many thanks

 

[chewymix]

So i am now really confused as the building inspector has come around and said there is no evidence of a sewer and to 'not worry about it' -

I wonder if Thames Water can email me the map where they think this sewer is?

thanks

 

[DevilDamo]

When a Building Regulation application is submitted, Building Control usually carry out a "Stage 1" check, which is like a checklist on all new applications. One of these items relates to public sewers. Building Control usually have their own sewer mapping system and that would identify any public sewers that may warrant build over agreements. Therefore, if you weren't already aware there was a public sewer in/nearby, then they should tell you. Similarly Building Control should be able to provide you with a map of the public sewers as Thames Water would only do so once an application and fee has been submitted.

Anyway, as the BCO is now saying there is no public sewer, than you can proceed. After all, it will be the LABC signing off the works and they wouldn't sign it off if a build over was required.

 

[chewymix]

common sense prevailed - after submitting some drawings to TW and speaking directly to one of their build over engineers rather than someone in the call center and they have agreed we do not need one and have provided documentation to the same.

Which is a good result

thanks