When we were having plans drawn up for our extension we were concerned that the footings for the rear wall might be a bit close to a drain that runs across the back of our property. We consulted one of the building surveyors at the council who said that our plans looked fine and, in fact, a gap as small as 25mm would still comply with building regs. We went ahead and applied for planning permission and it was granted. We're in the throws of obtaining building regs and have discovered that the drain is owned by the local water board and we need to obtain a "build over agreement" from them. Our architect said that this is just a formality and basically a licence to print money on their part (they charge £315 for the privillage!). However, on the application form it says that footings must be set at least 600mm from the drain - ours is more like 50!!! The architect says they are just trying to justify their existence by setting such conditions. Our builder has never heard of this either and was surprised as he has built many extensions locally over public sewers, one just recently, which definitely didn't comply with this. He has no idea how his clients obtained the build over agreement but suggested we try negotiating with the water board. Both he and the architect said the water board do not make any site inspections either before or during the build - they are more interested in just collecting their fee!!! Our architect said the quickest and easiest way round this is to simply fudge the figures on the build over application, showing the footings to be further from the drain than they really are! Of course, the drawings submitted to the council for building regs would show the correct measurements. We weren't too happy about this, but let him go ahead anyway. We've just received a letter from the water board agreeing to the build over. However, the letter does state this is on the condition that the footings are 600mm from the drain and that they will be sending a copy of the letter to the council. We're now panicing that the council will realise we lied to the water board and that this could jeopardise the whole extension. Our architect said they probably won't even notice, and even if they do won't care as they know that what we are doing is perfectly safe as far as building regs go.
However, we are reallly worried now. Does anyone know anything about these matters?
