Inclusion of fees in our quotes
In any initial quote that we give, we will list fees that we expect to incur from Highways and water authorities alike. For Example we may quote £400 for a Section 50 and £350 for a Section 106. These figures should be reasonably accurate and will normally be based on our previous experience with different councils and different water authorities. However, due to the many different authorities we deal with, constantly changing fees, and the sometimes quite flexible nature of fees charged by these authorities, our estimates will not always be precise. Having listed a fee of – for example – £400 in our quote, if and when we put our applications in and we are alerted to a higher fee than that quoted to the customer, then these extra costs will be notified to the customer**
Bond payments.
Our Fact Sheet here explains bonds in further detail.We will not always know at the quoting stage whether or not a bond will be requested from us, by Highways, and we will never know the exact amount, with this being confirmed later on at the consultation stage between us and Highways, after the Section 50 application has been submitted.
Quoted depths of public sewers
On all quotes for sewer connections, we will always quote the maximum depth of sewer. This will be the invert level of the sewer. We will ascertain the depth of a public sewer by a variety of means including:
- Information from public records/water authority asset plans
- Information given to us by our customer
- Site survey
A site survey will normally be carried out prior to us starting on site, but even in the event that we do a site survey, we won’t always be able to confirm depth of the sewer by lifting manhole covers etc. Sometimes we won’t be able to lift manhole covers prior to traffic management being on site, sometimes our representative who comes to site won’t be able to lift a manhole cover on his own etc.
In the event that we come to carry out the work and a sewer that we expected to be 2m deep is, for example, 2.2m deep, then the extra dig depth, time involved, extra muck away and extra materials etc, will be charged as extra, with the customer given as much notice as possible.
Existing pipe materials & sizes
We will always assume public sewers to be ‘vitrified clay’ pipes, unless a Water Authority drawing details them to be another material, for example ductile iron, or MDPE etc. In the event that a public sewer pipe is not marked as being a material other than clay, and it turns out to be another type of material, then the extra cost as a result of this, will be chargeable to the customer** Examples include an asbestos pipe, not marked as such on a drawing. We will also assume the pipe size on a Water Authority drawing to be correct. If the size of the pipe is different then the extra cost will be chargeable to the customer. Both the pipe material and size may be confirmed at a site meeting prior to works starting, but this is not always possible. For example, if we have quoted for a junction insertion on a 225mm pipe, and the pipe turns out to be 300mm, the extra cost in this instance for materials alone, is £300
Traffic management type & associated fees
At the time of quoting we will always quote the type of traffic management we expect Highways to require, for example ‘Give & Take’ or ‘2-way traffic lights’ etc. We are unable to take advice from Highways in advance of submission of a Section 50 to Highways, as the fee we pay them as part of the application is for them to engage with us and often to meet us on site etc. As and when Highways require a higher level of traffic management than we have allowed for, these extra costs will be communicated to our customer**
In a few very exceptional cases, Highways will make changes to what they require from us, part way through the works being carried out. Examples include for traffic lights to be upgraded from 2-way to 3-way, or for the traffic lights to be ‘manually-controlled’. To manually control lights can be particularly expensive, and can cost anything from £350-£450/day. Any such extra costs will always be chargeable to our customer, and of course once on site it is too late for the customer to cancel their order.
Water Authority sign-off
When a sewer connection is completed, this will usually be inspected by the Water Authority (WA) and a ‘sign-off’ of some sort issued, whether it be by email or on their online portal. And of course we repect that our customer will want to see this prior to making final payment to us. Most WAs will require that not only the connection be done and passed before the sign-off is issued, but they will usually require the demarcation chamber to be in as well, and to have been inspected. In most instances we do not fit the demarcation chamber, our customer will normally take care of this. In the event that we do not cover fitting of the demarcation chamber in our quote, and this has not been installed when the WA come to inspect our connection to the public sewer, the job as a whole will not be signed off by the WA, and a second inspection will be required at a later date. Our sewer connection quotes will usually detail ‘payment on completion’, and despite the job not having been signed off by the WA – in the event that our customer has not yet installed the demarcation chamber – these payment terms will still stand and we will still expect payment on completion.
Adoption of pipework by water authority
Under a Section 106 connection to the public sewer, the water authority will always adopt the connection onto their sewer. This may be by way of junction insertion, saddle or construction of new manhole. The pipework between the connection and private property (also known as the ‘lateral’) will not normally be adopted, regardless of the fact that it is often in the Highway. Whether the lateral is adopted, or not, is dependent on many factors, including which Water Authority the S106 approval comes from:
Anglian Water will not ordinarily adopt the lateral under a S106 agreement, unless an extra fee is paid. We will always assume our customer does not wish for the lateral to be adopted, unless we are told otherwise**
Severn Trent will normally adopt the first 15 metres from the connection point under a Section 106 agreement**
Thames Water will not normally adopt the lateral under a S106 agreement
**Even in the event that the Water Authority is willing to adopt some or all of the lateral, this will be normally be subject to their main criteria that the pipework is laid without any bends; water authorities tend not to allow bends on their network. As we are laying pipework amongst other services in the Highway, it is quite common that a slow bend may be required on pipework we lay, which will prohibit adoption. In the event that pipework must be adopted, we require clear instruction of this at the start of the quoting stage.
For laterals to be adopted properly, the best way to achieve this is with a Section 102 or a Section 104, these must be completed by our customer, we cannot act as agent and apply for a S102/S104.
Zonal charge
In addition to the cost of a Section 106, there is sometimes a charge from the water authority to the end user, sometimes referred to as a Zonal Charge or an Infrastructure Charge. This is often in the region of £400-£500 and is normally charged as part of the continual billing process between the water authority and the end user, soon after the connection is made. However, occasionally they will invoice us prior to the connection being made, and it may sometimes be sent to us during the Section 106 application. Whether this charge is invoiced directly to the customer after the connection has been made, or to us during the Section 106 application process and in advance of the connection having been done, this charge will never be included in our quote.
Case Studies
For most jobs that we do, we like to do a case study afterwards for our website, see here. The case study is just a brief description of the works, and will normally include some pictures of the works before, during and after. We will never include any pictures of our customer or any other individuals other than our own employees, and we will always be very selective of pictures taken on private property. We will normally give an indication of the value of the work and we will quote the name of the town or village, but won’t ever be more specific than that. We will normally quote the name of the company we are working for, but in the case of a private individual, we will simply refer to the customer as ‘private individual’. If you do not wish for us to compile a case study of work we do for you, please let us know prior to the job being completed. If you’re okay for us to do a case study but would rather some aspects be kept private, for example the value of the works, or the location etc, then please let us know. Even having published a case study, it is not too late for us to change something in the case study, or to remove certain pictures, or information, just let us know.
Payment Terms
Our payment terms will always be detailed in the email body of the original quote, and will normally be ‘payment on completion’. In the event that the value of the job is in excess of £10,000, we will normally request interim payment(s) to be made throughout the works. In the event that an interim payment is not made on time, we reserve the right to stop the works, indefinitely if required, if payment is not forthcoming. The customer in this instance will be liable for the cost of any works carried out but not completed.
In the event that final payment is not made as per our terms, the pipework and the connection to the public sewer will remain the property of JW Clark Ltd. And we reserve the right to either remove pipework laid, both in the Highway and in private property and/or to fill our pipework with cement slurry to put the pipework permanently beyond use. And in order to fill pipework with cement slurry we reserve the right to access the demarcation chamber whether it be in the Highway or in private property, and our customer agrees to this as part of agreeing to our Terms & Conditions.
**As a job progresses, if costs rise and the customer wishes to cancel their order with us, they can do as long as we have not started on site. In the event that fees have been paid to us by the customer, and these fees have been handed over to, for example, the Water Authority or to Highways, we do tend to be able to reclaim these fees back. In the event that the Water Authority or Highways are unable or unwilling to refund us,we will always refund our customer up to a maximum amount of £500 for each of these two authorities.
By JWC
