08/05/2026
Buying a house built before 2015? Your mortgage survey won't check the drains......
Older properties — anything built before roughly 2015 — often have clay, pitch fibre, or concrete pipes running beneath them. These materials crack, deform, and let tree roots in over time. Pitch fibre pipes in particular can collapse without warning, and the repair bills that follow are rarely small.
Since the 2011 Transfer of Private Sewers, shared sewers became the water authority's responsibility — but the drain from your front door to the boundary is still yours to maintain and repair. That doesn't change when you buy.
A CCTV drain survey gives you a video report and a written condition grade before you commit. At PDS Surveys, we also include a detailed remedial cost estimate — so if there's a problem, you have a real number to put to the seller when renegotiating the price. Or you can walk away with your eyes open.
PDS Surveys are WRC certified, meaning the inspection and report meet the industry's recognised standard — the kind of documentation your solicitor can actually use.
Has your solicitor ever mentioned drain surveys as part of the conveyancing process? Let us know in the comments
