Drainage and septic tanks

What should you ask if an inspection chamber was not lifted?

Ask why it was not lifted and what that means for the rating. A seized cover, a parked car or a cover buried in a border is a limit of the inspection. It is not evidence the drain is clear. A Level 2 does not include a camera, and it does not include breaking a seized lid.

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?

Where a cover lifts safely, a surveyor may look into the chamber. They still cannot see the pipes between chambers. Silt, a high water line or roots at the benching are clues, not a map of the run. If the cover stayed down, the report should say the drain was not inspected at that point. Treat silence plus a buried cover as NI, not as a pass, and read the wording you were actually given.

A camera survey is the usual way to see the hidden pipe. It is a separate instruction. Approved Document H describes how drainage is built. It does not camera this run. Costs depend on length and access. Ask a drainage contractor for a scope. Do not dig to find a cover on the day before exchange without the seller’s agreement.

What should you ask your surveyor?

Which covers did you lift, and which did you not?
Why was a cover left down: seized, buried, or unsafe?
Would a camera survey be the further investigation you mean?

What are the typical next steps?

Ask the seller to clear access to buried covers if you are instructing a camera survey.
Do not rate the drain as fine because the bathroom flushed on the day.
Put a refused or impossible inspection in the questions to your solicitor if drainage is already a concern.

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

Is a slow sink the same finding?

A slow sink may be a trap full of hair. It is not a collapsed sewer. Ask the surveyor which one they mean.

Does flushing the toilet count as a drain test?

No. It shows the appliance ran. It does not show the pipe between the house and the sewer.