Sewerage pipes. Should we be concerned?

Hi all,

We are thinking purchasing a house that has 2 sewerage lines running through it. 1 at the front and 1 running down the side from the front to the back.

Should these be of any concern?

The pipe down the side is awfully close, if not under the wall of the garage. I believe that if they're that close, the pipes should be encased. Is there any way to find out if they have been?

Thanks

 

Looks like an easement on the darker highlighted areas (left of house), so cant be built over or a pool etc in future.

Other one (right of house) is the sewer connection for the actual house.

 

Best to get the proper plans rather copies of copies (by the looks)
What area?
You'll need to call the council or water authority about the concrete encasement. Depending where it is it may not have been done but it may not be a huge issue.
Also ask the council /authority about the lines, had many call outs or known issues, also if any chance is been relined or replaced recently

I'd day the highlighted plans is just highlighting the pipes and nothing special. It's not technically a formal "easement",just pipes running through the block.you'll need permission to build over and likely difficult if you ever want to develop. You're at the top of a hill by the looks so there aren't massive flows going through but there's always a chance of root infiltration and blockages.

It looks like a Syd water plan, so jump on dial before you dig for clearer plans

 

Thanks for the replies.

The plans are straight off the contract that was emailed to me. The property is in Edensor Park, NSW so I'll give dialbeforeyoudig a go.

The contract is with the solicitors now so hopefully they can shed some more light, but I'll give Sydney water a call and see what info is available.

We probably won't extend or develop any further, so they're not an issue for us, but do you think that it'll affect resale? Will they turn off future buyers? Do you guys see it as a negative?

Thanks again for the responses.

 

It's made you hesitant so likely to do the same for a future buyer

It's Sydney water. Ask when it was the last CCTV was done and if it's been relined for All lines on your property

Sydney water is onto their CCTV and relining, so the chance your place will demolished to repair the sewer is unlikely! They will need to access the man holes on your property if any issues arise or for maintenance but that doesn't occur often

If you love the place just do your research into it with Sydney water. Even call a second time to speak to a different person, you may get more info out of them and they are probably expecting a lower offer due to the pipes, so worth a shot. Plus you'll get the same come time to sell

 

Thanks Bob. I'll give Sydney water a call tomorrow.
Here's the dialbeforeyoudig map

 

you have 2 sewer mains running through easments
the big black spot at the front , is more than likely a manhole , with a junction(tee) , one side of the junction picks up the neighbour above you , and the otherside picks up your sewer and the neighbours
over the back fence

should these be of concern = no all sewers run into a main that your neighbours also run into .

Get your building inspector to check if the garage is an approved structure
is the sewer encased ?? those pipes are the councils asset , they are the only ones that can work on them

it is frowned upon to build structures over utility services

 

Cool.
Are you going back out to look at the property? If there are two of you, one stand out the front on the man hole, about 1m diameter lid. Other person in the back yard on the lid, about 600mm lid. Look at each other and you'll get an idea where the pipe runs. Roughly it's 1m off the boundary at the house
Is there a retaining wall at the back of the yard?

 

Hmmmm, we walked right up to the front corner where the manhole should be and didn't notice anything, but will make sure to find them on 2nd inspection.
No retaining wall, the block is actually quite flat.
Anyhow if the pipe is encased we don't really have much to worry about, correct? We'll just have to adjust our price.

 

There's probably bark chips or stones covering it out the front. And out the back they may have paved over? Is there pavers? Or is at the edge in the grass.
A big screw driver is good to poke around.

Sydney water will be the people to ask what's going on. They just give standard plans out but they'll have on theirs showing sections encased, relined etc

 

Spoke with Sydney water. The sewer lines have not been encased! They said I could get a Building over sewer letter to see if the building had been approved. Will be doing that today.

She also said that sewer lines rarely need repair, its usually the storm water pipes. Ifrepairs needed to be done, they would normally resleeve accessing via the man hole.

I also found the manhole and realised why I didn't notice it during the inspection........ notice how the brick fence doesn't continue to the boundary. I thought they were just very friendly with the neighbours.

I'm starting to think we should move on.

 

Did you find the lid out the back?

The photo shows that the pipe is right on the boundary at the front, if you found the one at the rear it may also be along the boundary so it's not built under the house and does not require encasement

That's a neat job! Normally the fence gets built over the man hole! Seen that a few times

Sydney water reline about 100km+ of pipe a year, only a small amount over the network. That would be their default answer so you're not scared of their evil pipes
Call again and speak to someone else. They may have some different info or see things differently

 

Unless you're wanting to build right to the boundary - why would that put you off? It's just a pipe running under the ground.