Back in July we added two new questions – 2.4.1 and 2.5.1 – to both the CON29DW and our commercial drainage and water searches. Both of these related to pumping stations – one identifying any within property boundaries, the other whether there’s any within 50 metres of the property.
So why have we done this? Well, there’s two reasons. Firstly, although there’s several different types of pumping stations, they can all cause problems for your property. They can be housed in a small brick-built building, within a cabinet box or located underground and accessed via an inspection cover, but all can to various degrees, be disruptive to a property owner. Depending on the type of pumping station and its proximity to the building, there can be occasional odours and noise.
The pressurised sewers that pumping stations discharge waste into are also subject to strict building controls. Whilst water companies will often permit building close to, or sometimes even over standard gravity sewers, the rules around pressurised sewers are far more restrictive, and can have serious restrictions on development in their vicinity. (You can read more about building over sewer on Severn Trent Water’s website).
Finally, a lot of these pumping stations were formerly private and are newly acquired by water companies. Because of this, they are subject to regular inspections and maintenance whilst companies bring them up to their standards. Whilst water companies will do this with a minimum of disruption, it would still mean their staff entering your property, along with possible maintenance work being carried out on the equipment.
And that brings us to the second reason. In October 2011, the majority of private sewers in England and Wales transferred into the ownership of water companies. This was designed to put the sewer network in the hands of the companies best-placed to look after it, and remove a lot of the problems associated with private sewers, such as access and maintenance. Private pumping stations were also included as part of this transfer, but with water companies given five years to transfer these into their ownership, ending on 1st October 2016.
We’ve been adding transferred sewers to our records over the last five years. Approximately 900 pumping stations in Severn Trent’s region have now also transferred as part of this process, and for the reasons mentioned above, we believe this is something homeowners should be made aware of. Because of this, all 10 providers of the CON29DW, working alongside the Law Society, have decided to highlight pumping stations in searches.
If you’ve got any questions about these, or any of the other information in the CON29DW, please get in touch using our contact page.