A house on top of underground natural watercourse

Hi, I am new here and would like to seek second opinions for a house.

We are looking for investment properties and found a house we'd like to buy. The house is at left-hand side of a road, while the right-hand side has been re-zoned couple of years ago and new 5-stories flats have been or being built. We think the left-hand side will be rezoned sooner or later.

But we found that the house is on top of a underground natural watercourse, diagonally from back yard to front yard. My concern is will the watercourse be a problem for building apartment on top of it? If it's rezoned one day, is it possible developer will not buy the land because of the watercourse?

 

Yes the watercourse is a problem. It's unlikely that the council will approve any new building on this block under the new Building Code. Avoid.

 

Thanks for the tip. Do you know how to find out if it's real stopper for building development? Do you think Council will tell me if I ask them? Or who else may know, say a developer?

 

Get legal advice.

There's so many reasons I would avoid this. You could talk to the Council, they might give you a possibility of development, then when you want to build bring up the fact it's on a flood zone and say no. Land becomes worthless pretty fast.

Or, maybe the Council approve it. Then the building becomes unstable due to water course. Insurance refuses to pay up because you built on a flood zone and they interpret the legislation that this should not happen. You might then get sued for building on unstable land/ negligence.

Get legal advice.

 

Without knowing more I would agree with @hobartchic I have seen significant drainage easements completely block development on plenty of occasions. If the piped drainage can be built over it will required lots and lots of concrete to build units on top of. If you want a really useful answer you need to get a local town planning firm with a drainage engineer, or a separate drainage consultant to give you advice, and be prepared to pay for it because it won't be free. However if it gives you confidence to make a good decision (one way or other) it will be worth it.

 

As a former drainage engineer my advice is avoid at all costs.

I don't know that getting a legal opinion is going to help much. When I was working I often used to get lawyers phoning me up to ask my opinion on drainage matters. After talking to me one lawyer said If he realised the implications of having a stream at the end of his garden he would have never bought his existing home

 

It's also bad from feng shui perspective, so many potential buyers who subscribe to this will not buy either (even if units do manage to get constructed).

 

Thank you guys for the advice.

 

Is water course different from the easement on the property?

 

Depends on the watercourse and the terms of the easement.

A watercourse may be a dry creek bed which is metres wide where as an easement May be only 1m and hold a pipe.

 

Hi there, sorry I know this is an old post but I came across it while searching for stuff. What is the bad thing about having a stream at the end of the garden? I've just realised we have a natural watercourse through the front corner of the property we have just bought to live in. What are the possible downsides I should know about?

I mean we're already living one of them, our front driveway is basically a marsh, wherever it's supposed to drain to on the kerb is not draining. I've been trying to figure out if it's something I can ask council to sort.

 

The answer is 'depends'. If it causes flooding or inundation then council may be planning on upgrading stormwater drainage in the area or maybe not. It's gotta drain to somewhere so your front yard may just be part of the way things are, when El Ninja fades away, the SOI increases and it's sunny once more your watercourse will once again be a dry creek bed.

 

If you have a stream at the bottom of your garden:

• Your garden and probably your house is part of a flood plain.
• Any development upstream is likely to increase storm flows to the stream which means future flooding is likely to be worse than historical flooding.
• You are very unlikely to get flood insurance on your property.
• Make some alterations to your land and it may be considered to restrict the flow which could make you responsible for upstream flooding.
• You may be expected to provide access for water course maintenenace.

 

Worrying, but thanks good to know!