Pre-purchase drain survey

Your offer has been accepted and the surveyor’s report says the drains were not inspected. A pre-purchase drain survey is a closed-circuit television (CCTV) inspection of the drains at a house you are buying. It is done after your offer is accepted, and before you exchange contracts.

That way, root ingress, cracked pipes, displaced joints and shared runs are known before you commit. You get the footage and a written report to hand to your solicitor or surveyor. Drainage Emergency carries them out from Mansfield Road, DE21, across Derby, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.

Why your house survey does not cover the drains

A building survey looks at the house. It does not look inside the drains, because the surveyor does not lift chambers or put a camera underground. The report will say “drainage not inspected” or “recommend a specialist drainage survey”.

The drains are the one part of a house you cannot judge on a viewing. A cracked clay pipe under the kitchen floor will flush normally on the day you visit. So will roots growing through a joint in the back garden, or a run that has dropped under the drive. They show up months later as a blocked toilet, a smell, or damp in a wall. By then the repair is yours.

A pre-purchase drain survey closes that gap. The engineer films the drains from the access chambers. That way, the condition of the pipework is known before you exchange, not after. Call 01332 215521 with the address and the agent’s name, and tell us your exchange date.

What a homebuyer drain survey checks

The engineer surveys every run that can be reached from the chambers. That means the foul drain from the house to the boundary, and the surface water runs. It also means the chamber where the system joins Severn Trent’s sewer. If a run is silted it is jetted first so the camera can see the pipe wall.

The camera is looking for the defects that turn into repair bills. Root ingress at the joints, which will block the drain again every year it is left. Cracks, fractures, and displaced or open joints, where the two ends of the pipe no longer meet and ground washes in. Dips where the pipe has lost its fall, the gradient that keeps it flowing, so water stands and silt settles.

Pitch fibre, a 1950s and 1960s pipe material that flattens under load. Previous repairs done badly.

It also records things a buyer needs to know that are not defects. Which runs are shared with the neighbours. Since the 2011 transfer, a shared drain is a public sewer, and Severn Trent’s responsibility rather than yours.

Where the sewer runs relative to the garden. If you are planning an extension, you may need a build over drain survey later. Knowing now is cheaper.

When to book it during conveyancing

Book the survey after your offer has been accepted and before you exchange contracts. Once you have exchanged, the drains are yours to pay for whatever the camera finds. Most buyers arrange it in the same window as the building survey.

You are not the occupier yet. Access is arranged through the estate agent or the seller. The engineer works from the external chambers and gullies. The seller does not need to be home for long. Nothing inside the house is disturbed, unless a chamber under the floor has to be opened.

The buyer normally pays for the buyer’s survey. The report is yours. If the seller offers their own drain report, treat it as a starting point rather than a substitute. You want the camera pointed at the runs that matter to you, and you want the footage.

What your solicitor and surveyor get from us

You get the recording and a written report, by email. Your solicitor gets a document that says which runs were surveyed, and what was found at what distance from which chamber. It also says whether any of it sits in a shared or public pipe.

That is the piece they need for enquiries to the seller. Your surveyor gets the drainage section their own report could not fill. Defects are graded, so they can be weighed against the rest of the house.

You get a recommendation in plain terms: nothing needed, a clean, a patch repair, a full reline, or excavation. We include a quote for the work, if you want one. That quote is the number you take back to the negotiation. The engineer who wrote the report is the person you speak to about it.

What we find in Derby’s older houses

The finding follows the house. Allestree, DE22, is a leafy 1930s to 1960s suburb around Allestree Park. There, large gardens and mature trees mean root ingress into clay drains is the most common thing a survey turns up. Littleover, DE23, has Edwardian and inter-war semis, and larger post-war plots towards Burton Road. It has the same problem, for the same reason.

Mickleover, DE3, is Derby’s largest suburb, mostly 1960s onwards. It has long private drains to the public sewer, and plenty of shared drives. There, the survey’s most useful finding is often not a defect but a boundary. It shows which length of pipe is yours, and which is shared and therefore Severn Trent’s.

Spondon’s village core, DE21, has Victorian cottages surrounded by post-war housing. It still has some of the oldest private drainage in the east of the city. Darley Abbey, DE22, has Georgian mill-workers’ cottages in a conservation area. There, any repair has to avoid digging. In both, the survey tells you not just what is wrong but what kind of fix is possible.

Repair, renegotiate or walk away

Three outcomes. The drains are sound, and you proceed with one less unknown. Or the survey finds a defect that can be fixed from inside the pipe. That might be a patch over a single crack, or a reline along a run with roots.

You get a quote before exchange. That work is described on the drain repair page. Or the camera finds a pipe that has collapsed or dropped, where the only fix is to dig. That is a collapsed drain repair, and the kind of cost that changes an offer.

With the footage and the quote, you can ask the seller to do the work. Or you can ask for the price to reflect it, or walk away.

Without them, you are guessing, and the seller knows it.

Booking a survey before exchange

When you call, you speak to the drainage firm that will do the survey, not a booking desk. We arrange access through the agent or seller. Tell us your exchange date when you call. We are based at 33a, Parker House, Mansfield Rd., Derby DE21 4SZ. We cover Derby, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

You get the price before we start. There are no hidden fees on quotes. We carry £5 million public liability insurance. The engineers who survey the drains are the same Chris, Dave and Phil that customers name in their reviews.

They are fully qualified drainage engineers, who repair what they find. So the quote in the report is one the same firm will stand behind. The full method is on the CCTV drain survey page. Call 01332 215521 before you exchange, and you will know what is under the house before it is yours.