Shared sewer line - not on my property. Who pays?

I am a property owner in NSW, and have a shared sewer line and boundary trap with a neighbour. There is a section of this sewer line which only my sewage flows, before connecting to the shared line. The sewer line under discussion is entirely on their property.

The neighbour has elected to take a quote for replacing the boundary trap and sewer pipe, accepted the quote, and begun work.

After work had begun, they contacted me and another neighbour to request that we share 3 ways in the costs.


My questions are as follows:


1) I have received advice that anything on the owner's land is their own legal property, and their responsibility. This includes that section of the sewer line coming from my property which is unshared.

Can anyone offer insight whether this statement is accurate?


2) Does the neighbour have the legal right to cut off my access to the sydney water mains sewer by capping my sewer pipe at their end, if we cannot reach an agreement which they are satisfied with?


3) Considering they have taken a quote and begun work without consulting any other parties, do they have any legal recourse to recoup these costs if a cost sharing arrangement cannot be reached?


Essentially, I wish to know my rights, and my legal responsibilities.


I have the intention to make a financial contribution, but need to know my rights and responsibilities in order to have an informed conversation about finances.

 

• Are there 2 or 3 parties of the shared line?
• So you have direct access to the sewer from your block?

 

3 parties, but one is considering getting their own connection / attempting to go silent so as to not contribute and continue to using shared connection.

My property does not have a direct connection to the sewer main, no boundary trap on my property.

 

I'm not a lawyer but we had a similar thing happen to us recently and we are also in NSW - very similar situation to yours!

The pipes that service your property alone belong to you even if on the neighbour's property up to the point that they become shared. In more modern properties there would be an easement for this but in old homes they often don't exist.

Once the two lines join (yours and any other neighbours) then they become shared and you have equal responsibility to service/maintain/repair them.

The neighbour is not legally allowed to remove your access to the mains. You can of course self elect to run pipes through your own land should you want to do so, removing any sharing.

In order to answer your last question, was the pipe work a result of an emergency? For example was sewerage or water backflowing up pipes meaning this work needed to be completed urgently? If so, then consultation is not always needed.

However, if not an emergency you should try and come to an amicable and reasonable settlement. If you can't agree on a cost then perhaps agree to get another plumber to provide a cost estimate for the same work and then pay your contribution to the lesser of the two costs. If you refuse to contribute the neighbour can make attempts to recover costs from you through civil litigation - arduous, expensive and really do you want to make an enemy of the person you share your poo disposal with?

 

Would the water authority have any advice in this situation? Sydney Water or other such entity?

 

I understand the neighbour experienced a "slowly draining shower".

This to me does not constitute a sufficient emergency to perform 20K in replacing all pipes, without consultation of any other party.

 

They say its a "civil matter" which is code for - work it out yourselves, in court if necessary. We dont care.

Which is kinda fair enough - sewer sharing arrangements are no longer permitted on new house builds as getting people to agree can be messy, as I am finding out for myself.

 

Slowly draining shower could be due to hair in the trap...

Get some draino onto it?

Has the work been completed already?

 

My thoughts exactly, draino, plunger, eel, pressure clean, root cutter would be appropriate emergency remedies to try first.

Yes the work has been completed - the neighbour has gone ahead and commissioned all works without consulting any other party.

 

Thanks for this information, I'll wait a while to see if that user drops by, otherwise will attempt to contact directly.

 

He is either idiotic, or will be seeing some sort of kick back.

Ask to see the invoice, note the plumber/company and see if you can piece together any correlation.

 

Can't believe they authorised non emergency works "without consultation" and expect compensation !

They could have had their entire house replumbed and been invoiced for "trap works"!
Surely there would have been an overflowing Inspection Opening somewhere, likely nothing an electric eel couldn't have resolved short term !!!!

Think of it like a fence, numerous quotes and agreement, no notice, no agreement and works already done = no pay

 

I can't see how you can be forced to pay unless something on title etc.....

but

If I was the one with your sewer flowing through my property, I would probably be asking you to keep your own waste, unless again it was on title & if you had access to a main yourself.

For your own property improvement, instead of thinking of paying them something, I would be looking at improving the property by re doing own connection if that is possible. Also the other party should do same.

 

Indeed, this is where I'm looking now. Going to be expensive though.

 

Yes we looked at doing this for our house as well - it is so ridiculously expensive and it really is literally money down the drain as if you sell the buyer doesn't see the "value" in this new work.

Keep us updated on what you end up doing. In our case we replaced all of the pipes that were owned by us (they were clay and had fully collapsed due to tree roots from a large jacaranda that the council won't give permission to remove or prune the roots) and we shared the cost of replacing all of the shared pipe work as well.

We were the ones to initiate the work as we could not shower or use the sink as water was backing up and coming back out of the drain.