Drainage and septic tanks
Roots sit in the channel and no tree in the garden was identified as the source. Why should the survey not name a culprit tree?
The survey should not name a culprit tree because no tree in the garden was identified as the source. Roots sit in the channel, which is what was seen. Several trees, or a tree now gone, can send roots into a drain. Naming one of them would be a guess. The report can record roots in the pipe. It has not identified which plant grew them, and it has not mapped every tree in the garden to the channel.
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?
Roots in a channel show a drain defect: an open joint or a crack that roots have used. They do not wear a label of the species or the stump they came from. A garden can hold more than one tree within reach, and a neighbour's tree can reach too. The survey did not identify a source. Writing a named culprit would invent an arboricultural finding from a piece of root in a pipe, which is more than the inspection established.
Ask a drainage contractor what the roots mean for the pipe, and ask an arboriculturist only if a particular tree must be linked. Tell the solicitor the survey refused to name a tree. Do not fell, or demand the felling of, a tree the report did not identify. The channel finding stays a drain finding until someone qualified joins a specific tree to those roots.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Why have you not named a tree as the source of the roots?
- What of the channel did you actually see?
- Did you identify any tree in the garden, or leave that unmade?
What are the typical next steps?
- Keep the roots as a drain finding with no named tree.
- Ask a drainage contractor about the pipe, not about a culprit.
- Do not fell a tree the survey did not identify.
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 largest tree stands nearest, can it be named?
No. Nearness of the largest tree is a hypothesis. The survey did not identify it as the source, and it should not be written in as the culprit afterwards. Roots in the channel remain roots. Another tree, or a stump, can be closer underground than the crown you notice. Leave the name off.
Does a root mass prove the drain has collapsed?
It proves roots are in the channel. Collapse is a further description the survey has not given merely from seeing roots. The inspection also has not named a tree. Ask a drainage contractor what the pipe's condition actually is. Do not upgrade roots into a named tree and a collapsed sewer in one step.