Drainage and septic tanks
The report recommends a CCTV drain survey and none is attached. What has the home survey already done, and what is the camera still for?
The home survey has done its visual inspection, and a look into any chamber that was opened. The camera is still for the buried run that was not seen. Recommending a CCTV drain survey means that length was not filmed, and none is attached, so the report does not contain a camera result. The survey has not passed the buried drains and has not failed them. If you instruct a camera, that is the next inspection. It is not a finding you already hold.
Last reviewed 24 October 2026. Written for buyers in England and Wales unless this answer says otherwise. No named surveyor has signed this page. It is general guidance, not a report on your house, and not legal advice.
What is the fuller explanation?
A recommendation for CCTV is the surveyor saying the visible evidence is not enough. Chambers show a point. A camera travels the pipe and shows cracks, roots, displacements and the connections between those points. Until that film exists, the buried condition is unknown, not bad and not good. Attaching no recording means you cannot quote a defect the camera has not found. You also cannot tell a lender the drains were camera-surveyed. They were not.
Instruct a drain firm for the camera if you want the gap closed, and give the solicitor the home survey recommendation so the result has somewhere to sit. When the film comes back, read it as new information. Do not edit the home survey in your head so that the recommendation becomes the result. The survey's work is finished at the inspection it actually did. The camera is the piece still outstanding.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- What did the visual inspection already include on the drains?
- Is any camera recording attached, or is the recommendation unmet?
- Which buried length is the camera still meant to see?
What are the typical next steps?
- Treat the CCTV recommendation as work not yet done.
- Do not quote a camera result the report does not contain.
- Instruct a drain camera if you need the buried run seen.
Costs vary with the building and with who you instruct. Where this page does not cite a published figure, ask the surveyor, a relevant specialist, or your solicitor for a written quote. Do not treat a forum average as the price.
Also asked about this
If the open chamber looked clean, is the camera still worth doing?
The recommendation says the surveyor did not think the chamber was enough. A clean benching does not film the pipe. Roots, a crack or a bad joint can sit a short way along a run that looks tidy at the chamber. The camera is still for that unseen length.
Who instructs the camera: this survey, or a drain firm?
A drain firm, as a separate instruction. The home survey has recommended it and has not supplied it. Asking the same report to grow a recording will not produce the film. Commission the camera, then read that report on its own.